When I Balance Again
by Nine1
Summary: Dai likes Kari, but Kari hates him. TK loves Dai. Can he change the redhead's mind in time to save him from heartbreak? Takesuke.
1. Balanced

A/N: Just had the idea for this when I was listening to "Love Is A Battlefield." I don't know why, though, since the song has *nothing* to do with this fic whatsoever. Hmm. Oh well. This is going to be a Takesuke, but there isn't any in this chapter. That's only because this is Daisuke's point of view, and Takeru's the one with the crush on our dear Dai-chan, though that won't last forever. Oh, and this has Daikari, and I'm sorry if it seems I'm sort of bashing Kari or Miyako, because I'm not. I love them! I just need to portray them like this to work with the fic. Anyways, go ahead and read. You can skip the disclaimer, since you know what it says.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon or the characters. Also, I don't own "Scarborough Fair" or "Three Libras." They're just songs I use in this fic because Dai listens to them on his CD player.

Balanced

Daisuke got up that morning with the usual smile on his face. He slid out of bed and waded through the clothes, books, papers, and other random junk on the floor to his closet, opening it as best as he could with the mess on the floor and pulling out a shirt and jeans. He pulled the shirt - it was dark blue and said, "Remember my name - you'll be screaming it later" - and the dark blue baggy jeans on, then grabbed his CD player from his dresser and went to the kitchen, slipping the CD player into his large front pocket and putting the earphones in. 

He went to the cupboard and pulled out a cereal box, then went to get the milk, a bowl, and a spoon. He remembered to pour the cereal in first this time and then followed it with the milk, putting the cap back on the jug and putting it back in the fridge. He put the cereal box away and grabbed the spoon, going to the kitchen table. 

He sat down and began eating straight away. He finished his cereal in five minutes and put the bowl and spoon in the sink, going to the counter to grab his backpack off of it and going out the door.

~ ~ ~ ~

He sat in his History class. The only thing keeping him from falling asleep was the song that was currently playing on his CD player, which he loved, and was mouthing the words to, and the paper he was drawing on.

He glanced up a few times at the teacher, so the teacher would think he was writing down notes or something like that, and she'd also think the CD player wasn't that loud if he could hear her. Sure enough, the teacher never asked him to turn the CD player off or stop writing.

His doodling slowly became a picture of Demiveemon eating cookies, and he smiled. Demiveemon visited him on weekends, but other than that, he wasn't ever allowed to see his blue friend. It was a rule Gennai made up after their last adventure in the Digital World. How did Daisuke know Gennai had made it up? Gennai didn't remember what the rule was the next day, when Koushirou asked him something about it.

Daisuke laughed. Gennai had to be senile, he thought. That was the only reasonable explanation for how kooky he was. Great to talk to if you wanted to laugh, though.

Anyways, the Digidestined were allowed to have their Digimon over on weekends, but other than that, the Digimon had to stay in the Digital World, and they all had to stay in the real world.

Daisuke glanced up once and realized that the bell had just rung. He gathered everything into his arms, dumped it into his backpack, zipped his backpack shut, and slid the CD player into his pocket, slinging the backpack over his arm as he made his way out of the room and down the hall to the cafeteria.

Lunch was Daisuke's favorite time of the day, mostly because he got to eat, but he also loved it because it was the only time of the day besides before and after school that he got to see any of the older Digidestined. They were all seniors, and the younger generation were all freshman. 

He made his way through the crowd towards his lunch table and dumped his backpack onto a seat to save it for himself. 

"All right, who's going with me to grab a plate?" he asked, looking around at the people who didn't have a plate yet.

"I'll go," Sora answered, standing up.

TK stood also. "Me too."

"Great," Daisuke responded, smirking. "Then let's go."

The three walked to the lunch line and got in line, huddled in their group of three.

"So, what's up with you guys?" Sora asked, smiling. "Still like the people you like?"

TK blushed, but Daisuke smiled. "You ask everyone that every single day. Why would it change?"

"You'd be surprised the way the heart works, Dai," she responded sagely. "It is possible to fall out of love with someone in a day."

Daisuke shook his head slightly. "I never really believed that, the same way I never really believed in love at first sight. It takes years to develop love for a person, and maybe even more years to realize that you love them, acknowledge it, and act on it."

Sora shrugged. "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. So I'm guessing the answer to my question was yes?"

TK and Daisuke both nodded. Sora laughed and turned around to get a plate. She moved along the line and began putting things onto it. TK and then Daisuke did the same, punching in their ID numbers at the end of the line and walking back out towards their table.

Daisuke went to his saved place and took his backpack off of the chair, putting it in the middle of the table where there was already a pile of backpacks, purses, folders, and books. It was a habit that everyone would throw their stuff in the middle of the table. They'd been doing it since they first started sitting together during lunch.

Daisuke noted happily that Hikari was sitting directly across from him. As he ate, he watched her as she talked to Miyako about something. After a while she turned to look at him, eyes narrowed.

"Stop looking at me, Dai."

"Aw, Kari, you know you like it."

She made a face of disgust and turned away, talking to Miyako again. "*Anyways*, as I was saying..."

Daisuke didn't look affected by this brush-off at all. He was far too used to it to think it rude. For him, it was just routine. Him flirting with Hikari, and then her coldly blowing him off. That was just the way things happened.

Pretty soon the lunch bell sounded and they all got up and went to throw their plates, then separated into small groups to go to classes. He had this next class with TK, Miyako, and Kari, so he walked with them. He made sure to walk beside Kari, with TK on his other side, and Miyako on Kari's other side. This was the way they always walked. 

As they went to their class, Kari spoke only to Miyako, who seemed to hang on her every word. Daisuke felt slightly jealous that Kari was paying so much attention to her, but shrugged it off. They were best friends, why *wouldn't* they talk to each other all the time?

Daisuke played "Scarborough Fair" on his CD player and smiled, suddenly feeling peaceful. This song always calmed him down. Whenever he listened to it, he was back in the Digital World, sitting beside Veemon, outside in the snow. Not playing in it, just standing there and watching it fall. Veemon would be calm and serene for once, catching a snowflake on his tongue. Daisuke would stretch his arms out and turn in a slow circle, eyes closed, feeling carefree, so wonderfully carefree.

When in this world, he would be protected from all outside forces. He would be protected from the daily insults, from Kari and others, the usual callings of "stupid", which, while he always laughed them off, sometimes did hurt. He wouldn't have to worry about impressing people, or of beating the other soccer team. He wouldn't have to pretend to teachers that he was listening, and wouldn't have to stare at all of those questions on his tests as if they were in a foreign language, then have to guess them all. 

He was brought out of his snowy world when they reached their class and went to their respective desks, sitting down. The song continued to play, and he sunk deep into his mindworld until a paper was placed in front of him - the assignment.

He went to the page the assignment said it was from and skimmed over the paragraphs and explanations. He hated Reading in junior high, and he now hated Literature in high school. He didn't know how TK could love this as his favorite subject. It was so boring. He never got into any books. His attention span was too short.

Daisuke sighed and rubbed his temples, reminding himself of the only reason he didn't want to fail any of his classes: His friends. If he failed, and they moved on to the next grade, he wouldn't be able to see them, and they would graduate before him, go to the prom before him (unless he snuck in), and all of that junk. He tried to concentrate on the assignment and did his best to get the answers right out of the book. 

He knew he was much smarter than people took him to be, but he was just too damned lazy to sit down and really read about all of this junk. He didn't care for school work too much, but he was smart logic-wise, despite what other people believed. Sometimes he played stupid to be babied, sometimes to be funny, and other times just because he was so used to it that there was no other way he could be.

His CD player began to play, "Three Libras," by A Perfect Circle. He finally finished the assignment and turned it in, then looked up at the clock, only to see that he still had twenty minutes of class next. He tapped his finger on the desk and glanced around the room, feeling somewhat bored now, but then he looked at TK, who was sitting just across from him, in the next row. He was done and was boredly doodling random things on a paper.

Daisuke got an idea and got a piece of paper out, then scribbled on it, "Hey, TK, you as bored as I am?"

He folded the paper up and tossed it onto TK's desk. TK jumped slightly, but then glanced up at him, raising an eyebrow. Daisuke looked at the paper then back up at him and TK got the point and opened the paper, reading it. He saw TK's face break into a grin and then he began writing on the paper.

Daisuke waited patiently until TK threw the paper onto his desk and then opened it. "What does it look like? So, any plans for today?"

Daisuke thought for awhile. What was he going to do today? He never liked to think too much ahead, because it spoiled the fun of having sudden ideas pop up as to what to do. He supposed he should write the only thing he could come up with. "None whatsoever. How about you?"

In a few seconds, he had the paper back. "Nothing here either. Boy, aren't we the boring ones? Want to grab Ken and have Playstation Wars or something after school?"

Daisuke grinned. He, Takeru, and Ken always found themselves in either his or TK's bedroom, laying on the bed or the floor in boredom and doing nothing. He didn't remember when they started hanging out just the three of them, but he remembered feeling much closer to TK after the blonde told him that he didn't like Kari anymore. 

"Sure, why not. There isn't anything else to do. My house or yours?"

They never hung out at Ken's house. For one, TK's and Daisuke's parents were rarely willing to drive anywhere farther than the grocery store across the street. Ken's mom, on the other hand, was always willing to drive him to their houses, because she was overjoyed that he had actual friends at last. Also, they never went to Ken's because Ken hated to have anyone over, for some reason he couldn't explain. Just a feeling.

So, it was always at Daisuke's or TK's that they spent time. The paper flew onto his desk again. 

"It's my turn, remember? I'll call Ken after school and you can just come over when you want to."

Oh, yeah, they had crashed at his house two nights ago. It was TK's turn. "Right, I forgot. Okay, I'll head over after school," he wrote in response.

He threw it at TK and the other boy caught it and opened it. He caught Daisuke's eye and nodded, then tore the note up into little pieces. TK always had a habit of doing that whenever they were done with the note. He tried to tear it up into the *tiniest* pieces. Daisuke shook his head in wonderment, and then the bell rang, and they both got up out of their seats, TK gripping the remains of the note in his fist. 

They followed the girls out, who were *still* babbling on about something, and TK opened his fist and dropped all of the pieces of the note into the trash can, scraping a few clingy pieces off of his palm with his fingers, and then walked out the door, shaking his head to get a lock of his hair out of his eyes. 

TK had abandoned his white Gilligan hat the previous year, by Miyako's advice; she had said wearing it in junior high was one thing, but wearing it in high school was another, a definite no-no. The only reason TK listened to her was to get her to finally shut up about it after she continuously advised him to drop the hat for that entire summer. Daisuke absolutely refused to stop wearing his goggles, and since Miyako knew how stubborn Daisuke was, she didn't bother pressing him. And so, Daisuke still had his goggles perched proudly on his head.

Daisuke had to admit that TK looked a lot better-looking without the hat, because his hair was silky and looked incredibly soft, like Yamato's did. Of course, Daisuke thought all of that in a completely non-gay, only-stating-a-fact kind of way, or so he said to himself.

They went to their respective lockers, and since TK's locker was only three lockers to the right of Daisuke's, they could freely talk, since the people in between them weren't there.

"So, I'll head right over when I'm done eating and doing homework, and all of that junk," Daisuke told him.

"Okay," TK responded.

They wouldn't be seeing each other the rest of the day, having different classes, and they didn't pass each other by in the halls, either. They separated and Daisuke went on to his Algebra class, sighing. 

"I hate algebra," he muttered.

~ ~ ~ ~

That afternoon, Daisuke walked home from school, smiling again. The torture was over; he had survived another day. He charged into the house and threw his backpack onto the counter, rummaging around for homework. He just had to do one page, so it didn't take very long, and then he made himself a large sandwich with everything on it, and began walking towards TK's house as he ate it.

'I wonder if Ken's already there,' he thought, munching on his sandwich. Ken's mom didn't like driving, so, naturally, she drove faster than necessary so she would have to drive as little as possible.

He turned into TK's driveway and began walking towards the door, his mouth still full.

'I hope Ken's still alive and everything. It'd be too bad if his mom crashed before I got to beat his ass at Super Smash Bros. And the rest of him, too.'

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: I'm sorry that there's no Takesuke in this chapter, but don't worry, the next chapter will be in TK's POV and you'll see it there. Dai doesn't like TK back yet, but he will soon, don't worry! He won't be pining after Kari for too much longer. So anyways, I hope you all liked this, and please review this, and tell me what you think. Positive reviews make me so happy! Er, this fic will get angsty, and then there will be fluffy parts, and maybe even a bit random humor in here? Dai is one of the two main characters, after all. We'll see. Bye, everyone!

In the next chapter, look forward to:

1. TK's mind rolling around in the gutter!

2. Daisuke eating pickles!

3. Ken getting mad, getting chased, and getting sat on!

4. Playstation Wars!


	2. Playstation Wars at TK's House

A/N: Here's the second chapter. I'm having fun with this. Okay, so, this chapter is TK's POV, so excuse him if his mind rolls around in the gutter. He tends to do that alot, it seems.

TK: *Evil glare* I do not. You make me.

So? Anyways, we get to see some Takesuke in here! And Ken getting mad, getting chased, and getting sat on! Yay! Enough rambling from me though, read on. Oh, and R/R.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon or the characters.

Playstation Wars at TK's House

TK opened the door to his house and smiled when Daisuke tumbled in. Daisuke righted himself and smiled cheerfully at TK, said his usual, "Hey, TK," and went straight to the refrigerator. TK closed the door and followed him, folding his arms behind my head.

"You know, Dai, I should just buy a whole new refrigerator for when you come over."

"Hah, hah, TK," Daisuke responded, his upper body hidden by the refrigerator door. "Hey, have you called Ken?"

"Yeah, I did. He's on his way. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten here yet."

'And also quite glad, to tell the truth,' TK added in his mind, looking over Daisuke's lower half and smiling to himself. 'I'd like to eat *him* instead of-'

"Pickles!"

'-pickles?'

"Oh yeah, I told mom to restock on the pickles, since you love them so much."

TK leaned against the wall, sighing. He watched Daisuke pop the pickle into his mouth and hold it there while he put the pickle container back into the refrigerator and close the door to it. 

'I wish I were that pickle,' TK thought, and grinned to himself as he imagined it.

"Hey, TK, your face is all red. What's wrong? You hot?"

TK nearly slid down the wall. "Oh! Yeah, I guess it is hot in here. I'll turn the fan on."

TK quickly walked to the living room and flicked the switch for the fan on, desperately trying to cool his blood down. He groaned and rubbed the side of his head. He had to remember not to think of Daisuke that way when he was in the room. Dai walked past him, singing under his breath, "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes..."

He watched as the redhead began to dance and willed himself not to look at said redhead's dancing bottom. The doorbell rang and he gratefully went to the door, opening it. His indigo-haired friend smiled at him. "Sorry I'm late. My mom was sleepy, so she took longer to get here than usual."

He moved to the side to let Ken in and grinned. "Hey, don't worry about it."

"Daisuke is already here?" Ken asked, when he heard the boy singing in the living room.

"Yeah, he is," TK replied, rolling his eyes. Ken laughed and walked into the living room, and TK shut the front door and followed him.

Daisuke had already set up the Playstation 2 and was already gripping the first controller. "I called shotgun, but neither of you were here, so you lost your chance," Daisuke said simply, hugging the controller to himself.

Ken laughed and sat beside the redhead. He took the second controller and watched as Daisuke shoved the Super Smash Bros. Melee cartridge into the Playstation. TK plopped down beside Ken reluctantly, wishing he could sit next to Daisuke instead, and took the third controller. He watched as Dai moved through the screens until he got to the character screen, and then they all chose their characters, and Dai picked Random as their stage, the way they always did. The stage came out and they all began playing, trying to beat each other up without falling off of the platforms.

TK was having a hard time concentrating when he kept looking off to the side to watch Daisuke eat his pickle. He forced his mind not to go into the gutter and tried to focus more on the game. He watched as he fell off of the platform again and cursed. He gave Ken the evil eye and Ken grinned at him.

"That's what you get for not paying attention," Ken said, winking at him and going back to the game.

TK's eyes grew to four times their normal size and he sweatdropped, a la anime-style. Had Ken seen him checking Daisuke out? He'd better not have! This time TK made sure he didn't take once glance in Dai's direction and he put all of his attention into the game displayed on the TV screen. He knocked Ken off of the platform five times before the timer stopped and the game was over.

"Wow, TK, you really made a comeback," Daisuke said, smiling at him. "But you kept throwing Ken off. You didn't even touch me once! I wanted a little action from you, too, you know."

TK felt himself blushing at that last comment and tried to tell his dirty mind Dai hadn't meant it *that* way, and Ken was rolling on the ground with laughter. TK kicked Ken and Ken kicked back, grinning almost wickedly. TK decided he'd better talk to Ken later and make sure Ken didn't know anything about his secret. 

Daisuke was looking at them both oddly. "I suddenly feel as if I've been left out of an inside joke," he said, pouting at them, and TK quickly shook his head while Ken just laughed more.

"No, Dai, you haven't. Really. Ken just, uh, farted. Yeah. Didn't you hear it? Surely you can smell it...unless it's gone already."

Daisuke fell over laughing. "Ken farted, Ken farted, Ken farted," he sang, and Ken gave TK the Mother of all Deathglares. 

TK smirked at him and stuck his tongue out, and Ken pointed at him, as if saying, "I'll get you later." TK nodded his head and held his hands up, mock-scared, and then laughed again.

Ken suddenly reached over and disconnected the Playstation, pulling the cord out of the wall. "Hah hah ha!" he said, grinning wildly. "Take that, you fiends! I dare you to laugh at me again!"

He stopped grinning when TK and Dai both began walking towards him, murder written on their faces. 

"I just had one more game to go to win the tournament," Dai said, eyes flashing dangerously.

"You could have messed my Playstation or my game up," TK said, fingers twitching like they wanted to get a grip on Ken's throat. Ken carefully backed away into the wall, and then turned and ran through the house, TK and Dai hot on his heels. They chased the boy around the entire house before finally catching him and sitting on him. 

Ken sprawled flat on the floor under the weight of them both, groaning in defeat. TK and Dai looked at each other, grinning, both sitting on Ken's back. "So what do you want to do now?" TK asked cheerfully.

Daisuke thought awhile, then replied, "Let's make something to eat."

TK groaned. "Dai, you ate right after you got here, how can you be hungry again?"

Daisuke looked honestly surprised. "You expect me to still be full from that granola bar? You're kidding, right?"

The two boys argued about whether they were going to eat or not, and Ken continued groaning, hoping they would notice him and get off. 

"Maybe I shouldn't have disconnected the Playstation," he muttered. "But at least they're both smiling again. Ugh, Dai needs to lose a few pounds. Maybe I can convince him to get off of his See Food Diet."

He groaned again as Daisuke shifted his weight on Ken's back. "Or not."

~ ~ ~ ~

Whee! Sorry that chapter was so short. It was very fun to write, though. These three are so silly...hehehe. In the next chapter, I'll be using both TK's and Dai's POV, and you can look for:

1. Tai and Matt being cute and weird. (What? Did you seriously think I'd leave Taito out of this story? *Gasp* How could I?)

2. Daisuke dancing with...a plastic skeleton? 

3. A discussion on marijuana, sex, and goats...?!

4. Ken finding out a certain secret about TK. (Yes, *that* secret!)


	3. They Did What With Goats!

A/N: Right, so in this chapter is in both Dai's and TK's POV. It's really just third person, but the narrator still knows what the characters are thinking. What's that POV called? Third person something...it starts with an "o". Oh well. You'll see when you read. 

Anyways, let's see. Okay, so in this chapter they're all back at school, and different things are happening with each of them. We'll spend time with the group before school, at lunch, and after school, and with Daisuke, TK, and Ken in good ol' Biology. I do miss that class. My teacher was such a nutcase, but he was a hilarious nutcase. The teacher portrayed here is *very* similar to *my* old Biology teacher, to put some humor into the fic. Okay, so, go ahead and read on.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon or any songs mentioned.

They Did What With Goats?!

Daisuke arrived at school swinging his backpack around behind him, and went to the Digidestined's usual table, sitting down happily. 

"Hello everyone how are you?" he asked quickly, taking a sip of Ken's chocolate milk. 

"We are doing just *fine*!" Tai answered him, just as cheerfully, hugging Yamato's arm tightly. 

Yamato and TK looked at each other and smiled. Their respective crushes (or boyfriend, for Yamato) were always this cheerful in the morning. Everyone else was usually sleeping on the table or eating breakfast silently, not yet having their usual energy that they always displayed at lunch and after school.

Ken was already asleep on his backpack, snoring loudly, and Koushirou was keeping himself awake with his laptop. Mimi was looking over his shoulder at the laptop and they were talking about something. Obviously Mimi was just as interested in whatever they were looking at as Koushirou was. 

Sora and Iori were discussing some test or something that was coming up. Iori had been moved up two years so he could enter high school with the rest of the younger generation of digidestined, and he had gotten in fairly easy with his awesome grades. 

Daisuke was listening to his CD player, "Bored" by the Deftones, and was grinning as he talked to Taichi about an upcoming soccer game and which team would triumph over the other. Since Ken was asleep and all, he reached over and grabbed Ken's chocolate milk, lifting it up to his mouth. As soon as the straw reached his lips Ken reached an arm out and stopped him from drinking it, pulling the carton out of Daisuke's hand. Daisuke stared at Ken, bewildered, and watched him place the chocolate milk back onto his tray, his head not lifting once from it's place on his arm, covered by his hair so Dai couldn't tell if Ken's eyes were open or not. Ken pulled his arm back in and rested on it, not moving after that.

Daisuke looked up at Taichi and blinked, and they both began laughing. Ken always was very protective of his chocolate milk and food during lunch and breakfast, especially around Daisuke. Taichi turned and whispered something to Yamato, who blushed slightly and smiled at the brunette, and then Tai kissed his cheek, laughing. 

"You're too adorable," he told him, and Yamato blushed even more.

Kari did her best to ignore them, not agreeing at all with their relationship, and began talking rather loudly to Miyako about how disgusting PDA could be sometimes. Tai, Yamato, Sora, Mimi, Koushirou, and TK all glared at her after hearing her say that, and Tai pulled Yamato to him and they began making out. Hikari made a disgusted noise and stood up, grabbing her purse and walking away. Miyako grabbed her own purse and followed Kari, calling her name out and sending a last glare back at the table. 

Daisuke didn't mind Tai's and Matt's relationship at all, and thought they went together, not to mentioned looked together, rather well. He couldn't glare at Kari, though, and so he stared down at his plate while all of that was going on. Iori, being rather young, also ignored what was going on around him while that was happening, not wanting to get involved, and Ken was again asleep during all of it, and didn't have a chance to send a glare Kari's way along with the others, though when they told him about it later on he avoided her in the halls and refused to speak to her the rest of the day. 

"Guys, you can stop now, they're gone," Daisuke said, smirking. 

Tai and Matt stopped, their hair messed up, breathing a little heavily. 

"Oh," Tai said simply, and brushed Matt's hair back into place with his fingers. They didn't mind being very public with their relationship, because they knew no one would say anything about it. The first week was hard, with plenty of people calling them not so nice names, but after one guy punched Matt in the face, and Tai and Matt literally beat the shit out of him, no one dared to make a comment about their relationship, even the most homophobic. It didn't stop Kari from making the occasional disapproving cluck of her tongue or snapping at them. 

The bell rang and they all got up to go to their first classes of the day, taking their respective bags from the center of the table. Daisuke walked with TK and Ken to Biology, Daisuke's favorite class, with a bounce in his step. That may have been because Daisuke loved Biology class and their wacky teacher, or may have been because he was listening to "Castles In The Sky" and it was impossible to listen to that song and not bounce when you walked. 

They sat in their desks, sliding their backpacks off of their shoulders, Ken now looking more awake after sleeping in the cafeteria. Their Biology teacher came in and smiled at them all. "Hey," he said simply, shutting the door. 

"Hey," the class responded, all of them awake so as not to miss anything strange their teacher did. 

Sure enough, the lesson was entertaining, as they found themselves later listening to a story of his that didn't have anything to do with what they were supposed to be learning.

"So they lived up in the mountains, see, and since it was so dangerous up there with high altitude and whatnot, they would have to do marijuana, and afterwards when they were going back down the mountain, they needed to relieve themselves from the drug, so they found these mountain goats and had sex with them."

(A/N: This was an actual story that my old Biology teacher told us...we were laughing so hard...)

The class all collectively dropped their jaws in shock.

"With the goats?!" Daisuke asked incredulously, feeling more awake than he ever had in any class in his life.

"What else?" the teacher asked dryly, and the class laughed.

"That's rather disgusting," Ken pointed out.

"Well, what would you have done, Ken?" the teacher asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ken couldn't answer. He really had no idea how to answer something like that.

"My point exactly," the teacher finished, beaming.

Ken wrote down in his notes and TK stared at him, shaking his head. "You're writing down notes about *that*?" 

Ken glanced up at him. "Well, it could be on the test."

TK groaned and rolled his eyes. Someone knocked on the classroom door and the teacher went to answer it. He talked to whoever was outside, then excused himself from the class and went out, shutting the door behind him. The class immediately began talking about the story, laughing and making disgusted faces.

TK turned to Daisuke, grinning. "Hey, Dai, I dare you to go and dance with Boner."

Boner was the name of the plastic skeleton in the corner of the Biology room. They hadn't had to use him yet in any lessons, but people still liked to play around with him and make him bend his arms and legs into odd positions. 

(A/N: Again, something from my real Biology class. Boner was the name of *our* skeleton, also.)

Daisuke looked over at the skeleton, then at the door, where he could see the back of their teacher's head still nodding as he talked to whoever was out there. Making up his mind, he changed the song on the CD to something he could dance to and went up to the skeleton.

He had put on "Tainted Love" by Marylin Manson, which he thought for some unknown reason would be a great song to dance to with a skeleton, and took it by the hands. He began spinning it around and dancing with it, grinning widely.

The entire class was looking at him and laughing. He was enjoying the laughter and attention when he suddenly the class went quiet and he stopped dancing with the skeleton, slowly turning around and smiling innocently at the teacher, who was standing beside him.

"How many times have I told you not to dance with the skeleton, Daisuke?" the teacher asked wearily, pulling the plastic skeleton from his arms. 

Daisuke thought a moment and then held both of his hands up, all of his fingers extended. "This many," he said proudly. 

"Go sit down, Daisuke," the teacher said, pointing to Daisuke's desk, and Daisuke skipped past him and leapt into his desk, laughing.

Once the class got settled again, the teacher began trying to teach the lesson he was supposed to be teaching in the first place, in his own words, of course, but ended up making jokes about it anyways and hardly being able to keep a straight face. 

The class left his classroom reluctantly and laughing, wondering what the next lesson would be and what would happen then. 

~ ~ ~ ~

TK and Ken were sitting in their algebra class, Ken writing down notes and TK balancing a pencil on the bridge of his nose (A/N: How many of us do that in class all the time? *Raises hand*). Ken looked over at his blonde friend and rolled his eyes. 

"You're going to flunk the test," Ken told him, even though he knew as well as TK did that TK was not going to be flunking any tests anytime in the next century. 

TK never studied, but he still somehow was able to pass his tests and classes with flying colors. Ken envied him for that, since he himself had to hit the books day and night if he wanted to get a high score on a test. 

TK shrugged at him and then his pencil fell off of his nose and he scrambled to catch it before it hit the floor. Ken laughed at him, and then thought of something he wanted to ask about before but hadn't had the chance.

"Hey, TK, about yesterday afternoon at your house..."

TK paled slightly and turned his head to look at Ken as slowly as humanly possible. "What about it?"

Ken smirked. "What was the big idea?"

"Uh, just freaked out a little, you know."

"No, I don't. Why would you freak out?"

"I thought you knew something about me that I thought nobody knew but you seemed to so I was worried."

Ken took some time to translate that sentence into something he understood and then nodded. "Well, what was it?"

"What was what?"

Ken eyed him and TK sighed. "I can't tell you."

"Why the hell not?"

"I just can't."

Ken thought back to that day and everything that happened before, during, and after TK and he got into that playful fight. He remembered that TK had began knocking him off of the platform they were fighting on in the game. "Why'd you keep knocking me off the platform?"

"Er," TK began, but found he couldn't finish. After a few seconds of silence after that, Ken raised an eyebrow.

He tried to remember farther back, and remembered that he had freaked out right after Ken made that comment about TK not paying attention to the game. 

Suddenly he remembered catching TK looking at Daisuke out of the corner of his eye much more than once and grinned. "Is it about Daisuke?"

TK instantly blushed a deep red, easily showing on his fair skin. "Uh, er-"

"I see," Ken said, laughing. "Okay, so it's about Daisuke, what about him?"

TK shook his head. "I just can't tell you. I don't want to risk losing you as a friend."

Ken's brow furrowed. "Why would you lose me as a friend, TK?"

"You don't understand." TK looked away from him, looking troubled. Ken knew that he *had* to find out TK's secret now.

"I promise nothing will change between us," Ken said truthfully, holding his hands up in front of him to show he hadn't crossed his fingers.

TK sighed and turned to Ken. It would be nice having someone know, so he didn't keep it inside all the time. Even Patamon didn't know his secret. He shut his eyes and then took a deep breath, then opened them.

"Ken, I'm gay, and I love Daisuke."

Ken's pencil fell onto the desk with a clattering sound, and then rolled off and onto the floor.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Whee! I'm having such fun writing this story. I *was* going to continue on with Ken's reaction to TK's confession, but I decided to leave it until the next chapter. Gwahahaha! I'm so evil...anyways. I just want to apologize to everyone out there that likes Kari and Miyako, because I like them too! I think they're awesome when they're portrayed in fics getting two people together, like Tai and Matt or Daisuke and TK, or really any other yaoi couples, but I just need them like this for the fic to work out, okay? So anyways...in the next chapter:

1. Ken's reaction (Duh...)

2. Daisuke gets a hold of some sugar (Gah...beware the sugar.)

3. TK's mind takes a trip down Gutter Lane (Yes, again, did you really think TK was *that* innocent?)

4. The Digimon make an appearance! Yay! 


	4. Cats On Mars

A/N: I'm really getting into this fic, aren't I...oh, boy. It is a heck of a lot of fun to write, though. And if you haven't heard "Cats on Mars" by Yoko Kanno yet, and you like slightly annoying songs to sing along to while annoying your friends, family, or people you don't know, then I recommend it. The darned song is so addictive. 

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon or Cats on Mars, the song belongs to Yoko Kanno.

Cats on Mars

Ken's pencil rolled on the floor until it reached TK's foot. TK stared nervously into his friend's eyes, searching for any sign of hatred, but it was as if Ken was hiding his emotions. He remained motionless for awhile, but then he closed his eyes and broke into the widest smile he'd ever seen.

"So you finally admit it?"

TK fell out of his chair and onto the floor. A few kids turned in their seats to laugh at him but then he climbed back onto his chair and they turned around. 

"What?!" the blonde whispered fiercely.

"I already sort of had an idea," Ken explained, grinning. "Yesterday at your house...well, it was more than a little obvious after you reacted to my statement. I hadn't known before that, though. I was just teasing you. I'd seen you look at Dai, but...I didn't know I was right."

TK cringed. So Ken hadn't really known? Well, he'd blown it. 

"Uh, so you aren't grossed out or anything?"

"Why should I be? Have you forgotten we already have two gay friends who are more than willing to show it off to the whole world?"

"Oh yeah, Tai and Matt. I forgot about them."

Ken smirked. "So what are we going to do about this crush?"

"We aren't going to do anything," TK said, narrowing his eyes at Ken, who was now smiling mischievously. "Right?"

"I don't know, it would be fun..."

"It's *my* love life."

"Well, you didn't tell me earlier that you have been crushing on our best friend. Don't you owe me something for that?"

"No! It's my decision who I tell about anything that has to do with me."

"Okay, okay, I won't try and get you guys together."

TK smiled contentedly and lifted Ken's pencil. He tossed it onto Ken's desk and Ken brought his hand down on it so it wouldn't roll off the other end.

"But I think you should," Ken added as an afterthought.

"Should what?"

  
"What else? Tell him how you feel."

"Are you completely bonkers, Ken? In case you haven't noticed, our dear friend Daisuke is head-over-heels in love with Queen Bitch of the World."

"I like that word, bonkers."

TK stared at him in exasperation and Ken laughed and patted his head. 

"Alright, you can do what you want to with your love life. But I still think you should mention it to him. Who knows? Maybe he flirts with Kari to conceal his hidden feelings for you."

TK rolled his eyes. "Dai isn't the type of guy to take crap from people he doesn't care for, so why would he take so much from Kari if he wasn't blind enough to still like her?"

"Because he's plotting a great revenge on her and is letting her treat him horribly until he can wreak havoc upon her life?"

"Yeah, I wish."

~ ~ ~ ~

Daisuke bounced in his seat at the lunch table, grinning widely. TK and Ken stared warily at the open and empty packages of sweets littered around Dai's lunch plate and then looked at each other in concern. Daisuke had gotten a hold of some sugar, again.

He brought out a small radio that he had stolen from Biology and set it upon the lunch table, then he got a CD out of his CD player and slipped it into the one on the radio. 

Instantly, "Cats on Mars" came out, and everyone groaned. 

"He had to put the most annoying song on that CD on during lunch for everyone to hear," Sora said, grinning.

Tai laughed and bounced in his seat. "I like this song!"

Matt groaned and rested his chin in his hand. "I know, oh boy, do I know."

Soon, the catchy tune of the song made them all bob their heads to the beat. Everyone except Hikari was now dancing in their seats at the lunch table, singing the song as best as they could. 

Hikari grumbled and said loudly enough for all of them to hear her over the music, "That has to be the most annoying, stupid song I have ever heard."

"We know, that's why we like it," Matt answered her, grinning.

"One of our favorite hobbies is annoying people," Daisuke explained. 

Mimi giggled. "Is there anything better to do?"

Kari rolled her eyes. She began to eat again but a piece of mashed potatoes hit her on the forehead. She shrieked and stood up, glaring around the table. "Who did that?"

They were all to busy laughing to answer her, so she stalked off to the bathroom. Miyako followed her, laughing.

Everyone high-fived Koushirou, who held the spoon he had flicked the mashed potatoes with hidden behind his laptop, and Mimi slid him a five-dollar bill, grumbling, "I didn't think he'd do it."

~ ~ ~ ~

As they walked home from school, TK and Ken were talking and laughing about Kari getting hit with the mashed potatoes. 

"The look on her face, priceless!" TK said joyfully.

"I know," Ken agreed, holding his stomach.

Daisuke pouted. "It was kind of mean. I mean, we all just laughed at her."

TK and Ken stared at him. "She totally deserved it, Dai. She was being downright rude."

"Well, it is an annoying song," Dai said slowly, rubbing his arm.

TK groaned and shook his head. "No, don't do that. Don't sympathize with her, Dai. You love that song, I know you do." He sighed and shook his head. "Why do you like her so much?"

Dai stared at TK for awhile, then looked at the ground. "I don't know," he replied, and looked away from them.

TK stared at him sadly and turned away as well. Ken looked at them both and frowned. He shook his head, wondering to himself why Daisuke bothered to stick up for Kari when all she did was put him down. He was hopeless.

He turned to TK. "Can I go to your house? I want to talk to you."

"Yeah, sure," TK replied, smiling slightly. They walked with Dai to his apartment and then went to TK's apartment.

~ ~ ~ ~

"So, what do you like most about him?"

TK thought for awhile, munching on chocolate chip cookies that his mother had made for them. "I don't know, I can't really pinpoint what it is. He's so carefree, you know? He's got this aura around him that sets you at ease, like you could talk to him about anything and be totally comfortable about it."

"So then why don't you tell him you like him?"

"That's different. That's the kind of thing that might destroy that ease that I feel around him, and I don't want that to happen," TK responded, staring at the pillow he was hugging.

Ken sighed and leaned back against the wall. "If you keep it to yourself, you'll always wonder 'what if', and you'll regret not telling him sooner."

"Oh, I will tell him someday, but not yet. I'm not ready yet."

They sat in silence for awhile, and then TK grinned. "I also love his body. He's got a great build, and his skin is the perfect tan." He giggled and hugged his pillow tighter, and Ken laughed, bonking him with another pillow.

"I bet his hair is soft," TK added, his eyes softening.

Ken smirked. "What gives you that idea?"

"I don't know. I just always imagined it to be."

Ken thought for awhile, and then shrugged. "It could be, I guess. It's just always so spiky. You'd have to touch his hair before he puts any gel on it or anything."

TK blushed. "You mean like when he wakes up in the morning?"

Ken laughed. "Is that all you think about?"

TK grinned mischievously. "No. I also wonder what he would make me cook for our breakfast the morning after."

Ken bonked him with the pillow again, laughing. "You are a bad boy."

"Yes, I am. And it's fun."

"I know."

~ ~ ~ ~

The Digidestined all gathered in front of Koushirou's computer, the way they did every Friday afternoon, waiting for their Digimon to come through.

Pretty soon, all of the Digimon had made it through the Digiport and they all thanked Gennai. 

"Make sure that you have them back over here before midnight on Sunday," Gennai reminded him, for once remembering his own rules.

"Okay, I will." Koushirou closed his laptop and grinned at Tentomon. "Miss me, buddy?"

  
Tentomon hugged him. "I bet you missed me more, though."

Daisuke put Veemon on his shoulders and laughed, grinning up at him. "Hey, buddy. Now we can go get ice cream together again!"

"Yay!" Veemon answered, throwing his arms up into the air.

Kari and Gatomon rolled their eyes and Kari walked out of the room with her, Miyako and Hawkmon quickly following.

Daisuke and Veemon began singing "Cats on Mars", and everyone joined in as they all made their way to the ice cream shop for their first get-together of the weekend.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: That was so fun to write. Again, I'm sorry to all Kari/Gatomon/Miyako/Hawkmon lovers out there, but this fic needs someone as the bad guy (er, girl), and it works with the fic. You'll see later on. Anyways, thanks everyone that has read this fic so far. 

In the next chapter:

1. Ice cream madness 

2. TK and Patamon in dresses (of course, Ken's doing)

3. Tai, Matt, Dai, and Koushirou groove! 

4. Koushirou repeats a classic Kou-quote from the series...I couldn't help myself.

See you all in the next chapter!


	5. We are the Knights who say Ni!

A/N: Here's the fifth chapter. I hope you're enjoying my fic so far. I've fallen in love with it...I don't know, I'm just so completely happy with this fic so far. I really hope I don't lose the touch for it and mess it up later on. I didn't expect this fic to be so light-hearted and funny, but I knew the second I began writing it that this fic had a mind of it's own, so, naturally, it's totally not the way I had planned it to be, but it's even better like this, so I'm happy. I'm sure you don't want to hear me rambling on, though.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon or any of the characters. Don't own Monty Python.

We Are The Knights Who Say Ni!

The nine Digidestined and their Digimon sat in the park, eating their ice cream and talking. Mimi and Sora were on either side of Koushirou as they stared at whatever was on the laptop screen, pointing and whispering to each other some times, and other times just plain gawking. 

Daisuke realized that they did this a lot, and they had done this very thing that same morning at breakfast. Mimi had been staring over Koushirou's shoulder as they did something on the laptop. He wondered if he should go over and take a peek at whatever was on that laptop's screen. 

He didn't get the chance to go over as Veemon wandered over and sat on his lap, smiling up at him. He grinned down at the blue Digimon and lowered his ice cream cone to allow his friend a lick. Veemon grabbed the cone from his hand and began devouring the rest, and Daisuke squealed a protest, trying to take it back.

"We're supposed to be sharing it, Vee!"

TK watched all of this with a dreamy smile on his face, not noticing when Patamon began frantically tugging on his pants to get some of the ice cream that was now dripping down his arm. Some of the ice cream dripped onto his pants and he gave a start, looking down at the mess. 

"Oh, great," he grumbled, moving his arm over the grass so he couldn't get any on himself anymore and trying to lick some of it off. Patamon ran over and began gladly helping him get it all off, and then he stared in annoyance at his incredibly sticky arm, which had dark patches of dried chocolate ice cream on it. 

Ken looked over at him and laughed. "Why don't you go dip your arm in the fountain?" he suggested, and TK narrowed his eyes at him. 

A little ways to the left, Tai and Matt sat under a tree, hugging each other and dozing off on each other's heads and shoulders. Gabumon and Agumon were affectionately taking turns licking a strawberry ice cream cone. All of a sudden, Palmon and Biyomon snuck up behind the pair and threw a bit of their rocky road at the backs of their heads, and they jumped in surprise.

What followed was an all-out ice-cream war that involved both the Digimon and the Digidestined. When they were done chucking handfuls of ice cream at each other, they all began walking towards the lake to clean off. They got in fully-clothed, and even Mimi didn't mind walking home sticky and wet. It was already growing dark, so they all separated to go to their respective homes, their hunger for ice cream and for a great time fully-satisfied. 

~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning, TK found himself woken up by a pair of hands roughly shaking him. He sat up in bed and shoved at the other person, wiping his eyes. "What's the big idea?" he asked in annoyance, looking at the indigo-haired boy smirking at him from his spot on the bed.

"Your wake-up call," Ken said, as if TK was already supposed to have been expecting him around.

TK narrowed his eyes and groaned when Ken turned the light on, pulling a pillow over his head. "I don't remember asking for a wake-up call," he grumbled, his voice slightly muffled by the pillow.

"Well, then this one is free," Ken responded, pulling the blanket from TK's body. TK sat up straight in bed, glaring at the other boy.

"Ken, it's too early to be up on a Saturday. Will you please just go away and come back later, at a more reasonable time? Let's say...2:00?"

Ken ignored him and lifted something to show to TK. "I have a great idea of how you can get Dai to notice you."

TK shook his head and avoided looking at whatever was in Ken's hands. "No, no ideas from you. No thank you."

Ken turned him back around and shoved what looked like a sundress in TK's face. "Look! Don't you want to feel pretty?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" TK asked groggily, staring at the light blue dress in Ken's hands.

"I even brought one for Patamon as well," Ken continued, as though TK hadn't interrupted. Patamon gulped from his place on the other pillow. He had been watching the exchange in growing suspicion. 

"It would be funny to see Patamon in a dress," TK said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

"Patamon will wear the dress only if you will, TK."

"No pictures or blackmail or any of that stuff?"

"Uh, no. Why on earth would I do that?" Ken asked innocently.

TK narrowed his eyes again but began to feel a bit better about the situation. "Well, I've always wanted to know what it's like to wear a dress. Now how would this get Dai's attention?"

"Well, we stick a sunhat on you and take you to Dai's house as one of my friends from out of town, giving you a girl's name, and see if he's attracted to you!"

"That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard of."

"Okay, so I only wanted to see you with the dress on. I made the plan up just right now. Please?"

"Why do you want to see me with a dress on?"  


"Because the second I found it buried away in my mom's closet I thought it would look absolutely adorable on you."

"Uh, when *did* you find it?"

"Just last night."

TK stared at the dress doubtfully. "What was it doing in your mom's closet, anyway? You don't have any sisters."

Ken smiled. "It used to be hers, when she was little. It was her first nice dress ever, so she kept it as a sort of memory."

"She won't be mad or anything at you for taking it?"

"How's she going to know? She doesn't do a regular check on it to make sure it's still there."

TK stared intently at the dress and gently fingered it's soft material. It was a very beautiful dress, and the color matched his eyes well. He looked up at Ken uncertainly. After a few seconds, he decided it wasn't such a bad idea. 

"You have got to promise to me you'll never tell a soul, Ken."

Ken's eyes lit up and he squealed. "You really will?"

"Promise."

"I promise I'll never tell, TK."

TK took the dress and went to the bathroom to change into it, and Ken helped Patamon into his own little dress, which had been on one of his mother's old dolls, and was the perfect match of the larger dress, only doll-size.

When TK came back out, he was blushing. He slowly walked into the room and stared at the mirror. Ken turned to look at TK and gasped. 

Before him stood what could be a beautiful young girl or an extremely pretty boy, slowly twirling around to look at the dress from all angles. 

"Wow," Ken breathed, "you look like a girl."

TK smiled and hid his face in his hands. "Really?" he asked shyly.

"Yeah." Ken burst out laughing. "You'd be really pretty if your face wasn't so bright red."

TK lowered his hands from his face to glare at Ken. "Thanks for the compliment, I think." Suddenly he noticed Patamon in the dress and burst out laughing. Patamon looked just like a little doll, and he even had a little hat perched upon his head with a light blue ribbon that matched the dress. 

"This isn't funny," the orange Digimon stated flatly. TK and Ken only laughed even more. Suddenly, they heard the front door open and TK gasped, his face going bright red again. 

"Oh no, my mom's home!" he hissed, his skin turning even paler, and sprinted towards the bathroom, holding his dress down at his sides. Ken hurriedly tried to get Patamon out of the dress. TK's mother suddenly came into the room, smiling. 

"Oh, hello, Ken! How are you today?"

"I'm fine, how are you?"

"Oh, I'm doing great. Where's TK?"

"In the bathroom," Ken answered truthfully.

Just then TK came running out of the bathroom, panting slightly and red-faced. "Hey Mom," he said tiredly, hugging her.

"Hey," she replied, hugging him back. "What have you been doing, running?"

"Uh, yeah. I was running around the house."

His mother gave him an odd, yet smiling look. "Okay...well I'll be going now. I have to catch my soap operas, you know."

"Yeah, okay, see you around, Mom."

She went into her room and TK exhaled loudly. Ken burst out laughing into the pillow.

"You should have seen the look on your face when you heard the door open!" 

TK slid down against the wall, laughing to himself. "That was sort of funny, once you think about it," he admitted, imagining the look he must have had.

Just then his mother came into the room, holding up the sundress that TK had left in the bathroom. 

"Honey, whose is this?"

TK made a yelping noise and got a guilty look on his face, and Ken slapped his forehead. "It's mine," he said quickly, reaching out for it. 

TK's mother gave him an odd look. "Ken, I hope you don't mind me asking, but...what were you doing with a sundress, anyways?"

"I uh...I was showing it to TK because he wanted to see what I was giving Kari for her birthday."

"Oh, I see," she replied cheerfully. "It's beautiful. I'm sure Kari will love it." She turned and walked out of the room.

TK covered his face in his hands. "That was close," he muttered.

"She didn't even ask what it was doing in the bathroom," Ken mused, carefully gathering the dress into his arms and folding it up. "Do you think she'll remember later on that Kari's birthday isn't for another half a year and ask us about it again?"

"No, she forgets things very easily."

Ken sighed in relief. "Maybe I should take the dress home now."

  
"Yes, please do," TK replied, watching as Ken moved out of his room and down the hall.

He listened to the sound of the front door opening and then closing and slowly stood up. He turned to face the mirror and stared at it for a long time. He slowly extended his hand towards the mirror and said in a soft voice, "Hello, Daisuke. My name is...Tonya. I'm Ken's friend, from out of town."

He slowly lowered his hand and stared at his reflection. He no longer saw the beautiful girl, but the hopeless boy, staring forward with eyes slowly filling with tears. His breath began catching and he willed himself not to start crying.

"Do you..." he began, closing his eyes and feeling a tear slide down his cheek. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes again, the reflection of the hopeless boy distorted by the tears stinging his eyes.

"Do you like my dress?"

~ ~ ~ ~

"We are the Knights Who Say Ni! and we have come to kill you."

"Oh, please, Knights Who Say Ni!, spare me."

"Well, we will, if you bring us a shrubbery."

  
"A shrubbery?"

"Not too expensive..."

"Will you both shut up?!"

Tai and Matt turned to look at Koushirou, who was typing away at his laptop. 

"Eh?"

Koushirou sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'm working here."

Tai and Matt stood, "hmph"ing and walking out of the room. They went to the living room, where Daisuke was watching TV. 

Matt leapt onto Dai, screaming, "This parrot is dead!"

Dai leapt a foot into the air and turned around to face him. "Monty Python?"

Matt grinned at him. "Who else?"

Dai laughed and stood up. "Brave Sir Robin ran away."

Tai nodded sagely. "Yes, he did."

Daisuke suddenly got an idea and went to look for his CDs. Tai and Matt watched as he grabbed one and put it in the boombox on the living room table. "Groove Is In The Heart" by Dee Lite came out, and Dai began dancing.

Tai and Matt stared at him for awhile, blinking, but then they began swaying, not being able to help themselves. Soon they were dancing along with Daisuke. Koushirou stormed into the room.

"Would you keep the music down?! I was work-"

He watched Tai, Matt, and Daisuke groove, and began to feel his own feet moving around. In a few seconds, all four boys had formed a conga line and were dancing their hearts out. 

"Now I couldn't ask for another," Tai sang.

"Now I couldn't ask for another," Koushirou mirrored.

"Groove is in the heart," Daisuke sang.

"Groove is in the heart," Matt mirrored.

They all began singing along with the song, and then the front door was thrown open and Mrs. Yagami entered. 

"How are you doing, boys?" She heard the music and peeked round her shopping bags to stare at the four boys still dancing, oblivious to her entering the room. She shook her head in wonderment, looked at her shopping bags, and then back at them. "Ah, hell." She dropped the shopping bags and joined their conga line.

"Are you all insane?!" Mr. Yagami yelled the second he walked in and nearly tripped over the shopping bags his wife had dropped in the doorway.

He stared at them all, an eyebrow raised, them grumbled as he moved past them to take the shopping bags into his room.

~ ~ ~ ~

After half an hour of "grooving" the boys laid out on the couches in the living room, watching TV. After a while, Matt's cell phone rang. Matt pounced on it, pressed a button, and lifted it to his ear.

"Hello?"

He was silent a little while and then looked thoughtful. "That would definitely be the red one."

Tai, Dai, and Kou all looked at each other oddly and shrugged. Matt said a few more, "uh-huh"s and then a "bye", then hung the phone up.

They all looked at him curiously and he grinned. "Mimi wanted to know whether she should wear the red or the black scarf for her shopping outing with Sora."

Tai rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you share fashion advice with her."

"She can't be human," Dai said, shaking his head. "She shops too much."

"Maybe she's an alien spy."

They all fell over and Tai threw a pillow at Koushirou. 

"What? She might be."

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: I saw a glimmer of angst in there. Really, I thought Dai was going to be the one that introduced the angst into the story, but I guess TK proved me wrong. It's so odd when you're writing a fic that you aren't really writing. Does that make sense? Well, it does to me. I'm not going to be putting any more "In the next chapter" things because they're getting too hard to think up, so you'll just have to wait until the next chapter to find out what happens in it. Please review this chapter? Reviews make me so happy...


	6. Mafia!

A/N: It'd been a while since I'd written any of this, so...here you go! In this chapter, Daisuke gets hit with a soccer ball in his no-no place and the gang play Mafia! Wooh, Mafia. The rules are explained during the fic, if you want to know how to play. It's a card game. Anyways, I don't own Mafia, or Digimon, or any of that. Sorry if you don't understand the Mafia part, I got a little carried away. Great if you do, though. It's so fun...

Mafia!

He stared at the floor, which had suddenly become interesting. Ooh, dirt and pebbles. He moved them around with his foot. This didn't stay interesting for long, so he glanced up to see what was going on at the other end of the field. Takeru and Taichi were busy fighting over the ball, shoving into each other and trying to grab it from each other. Ah, the joys of no-rules soccer. More bruises. More fun.

They had been at the other end of the field, bringing the ball back to the middle, then back over there, for what had to be twenty minutes now. The others moved out of Taichi's and Takeru's way, fearing for their lives if they got in the way. It reminded him of the girls when they play dodgeball at school. They mostly run to their friends and try to hide behind each other, making it so much easier to get them out. The girls at his school just couldn't do sports. He figured they might as well give up on coed P.E., but no, the coaches wanted it. 

Ken was getting fed up and Daisuke could tell he wanted to run into the game and help Takeru out instead of stand in the goal and watch them fight over the ball without actually getting anywhere near the goal. Ken and Daisuke got stuck as goalies for some stupid reason. 

Takeru finally made it past Tai and began sprinting down the field towards him. He spread his feet more and crouched slightly, getting ready for the kick. He hoped they'd make it this far without taking it back to the middle again. Taichi was lagging behind, having run around for the past hour and not having as much energy as Takeru had. 

Takeru got close and kicked it hard, right at Daisuke. Daisuke got ready to block it when he heard the sound of the ice cream truck coming down the road. It momentarily distracted him, and then Daisuke was hit with the ball and he felt searing pain. He screamed and fell forward onto the floor.

~ ~ ~ ~  


"This can't be happening," Daisuke muttered to himself. He licked his ice cream and grumbled as he held the ice pack in place between his legs.

"Your balls doing okay?" Yamato asked.

Daisuke glanced up to glare at him and then gave a pitiful moan as he adjusted himself on the chair he was sitting on. Ken had laughed his head off the second he'd seen what had happened and Takeru had apologized like there was no tomorrow. He was now sitting next to Daisuke and asking him constantly if he was feeling okay.

They had these soccer games every Saturday evening, in Daisuke's backyard. Taichi, Yamato, Daisuke, Ken, Takeru, Sora, Mimi, Koushirou, and Iori played. If Jyou was coming home from college to visit them for the weekend, he would play also.

Takeru finished his ice cream sandwich and looked over Daisuke carefully. He smiled to himself. Sweet, adorable Dai-chan. Things like this could only happen to him.

"Has anyone noticed, we eat ice cream a lot," Iori commented.

Daisuke saw that Mimi, Sora, and Koushirou were on the laptop again, and he remembered his earlier curiosity about what the hell they looked at all day. He slowly inched his chair towards them, cringing now and then, and Takeru saw he'd moved and moved along with him.

Daisuke looked over Sora's shoulder, and Takeru moved to look over Mimi's shoulder, and the three didn't bother shooing them away. 

Daisuke raised an eyebrow. "Who are they?"

"They're anime bishounen," Mimi told him.

Takeru blinked. "This is what you look at all day?"

"Actually, we look at yaoi all day. We read about it, look at pictures, shrines, character pages...you name it."

"What is yaoi?" 

Koushirou cleared his throat, and Daisuke held up a hand to stop him.

"Could Sora or Mimi explain it, so I understand better?" he asked. 

Koushirou rolled his eyes and Sora smiled.

"Well, it's really just two guys in a relationship. Usually, they're anime characters."

"What is Heero doing to Duo?" Daisuke's eye twitched.

Koushirou yelped and quickly went to another picture to cover the current one up. 

"You didn't see that."

Takeru and Daisuke looked at each other and raised an eyebrow. Mimi and Sora giggled.

"Well, I'll leave you three to your yaoi." Daisuke slowly stood up and walked slowly, cringing, towards the rest of the group. Takeru followed him after taking a last longing look at the picture currently displayed on the laptop's screen.

They sat down on a swing, next to Ken, and listened to the conversation.

"We really should do something like that, though. A picnic, a party, something like that. Maybe go to the movies, or the mall? I don't know, a road trip?"

"Road trips are always fun." Taichi smirked and Yamato's eyes widened slightly.

"Don't remind me."

Ken laughed. "Our last road trip was a blast. Especially the part where Yamato fell into the river and learned how to swim."

"That was not the best part!" Yamato protested angrily.

"You did learn how to swim pretty damn fast, though," Daisuke said, smirking.

"Don't make me punch you in the nuts," the blonde retorted.

Daisuke effectively shut up.

~ ~ ~ ~

They had decided to play Mafia. It had been much too long since they'd played, and Taichi and Yamato insisted they did. Yamato picked the Jack, the Joker, and seven random numbered cards out of the deck and expertly shuffled them. He stopped when he was satisfied and set them face-down on the table. He looked up at everyone. 

"Everyone knows how to play, right?" he asked.

They all nodded.

"I'll repeat the rules just in case. The Joker is the Mafia, the Jack is the Cop, and the numbers are Townspeople. I'm God, which is the player that handles the cards and oversees everything. I'll say 'Go to sleep' and all of you have to put your heads down or close your eyes. I'll call on you one by one and you'll 'wake up', and I'll show you your card. You remember your card, go to sleep again, and it continues until everyone has seen their card. Then, I put the cards away and everyone wakes up. After that, you all begin looking around and trying to figure out who the Mafia is. You accuse someone and try to get everyone convinced that they're the Mafia, and then there's a vote of how many people think they are the Mafia. If the majority do, then that person 'dies', and they say what their card was. If they were the Mafia, the Cop wins, and if they were the Cop, the Mafia wins. If it was a townsperson, the game continues. After the first time, everyone goes back to sleep, and I'll say, 'Mafia, wake up. Kill someone.' The Mafia wakes up and points at whoever they want killed. I say 'Mafia, go to sleep', they do. I say 'Cop, wake up' and ask the Cop who they think is the Mafia. I shake my head no or nod my head yes, and they go back to sleep. I say 'Everyone wake up', and 'So-and-so, you're dead.' The killed person gets a last word in who they think the Mafia is, and then the arguing resumes again. We continue like this until either the Mafia or the Cop dies." 

They all nodded and he nodded back. "Okay, so lets start. Everyone go to sleep."  


They all dropped their heads and shut their eyes. He called on them each one-by-one until they all had their cards. Takeru was the Mafia. Iori was the Cop. 

"Everyone wake up."

They all opened their eyes and looked at each other, smiling. Soon, Taichi said that he thought Ken was the mafia, and he began trying to get everyone on his side while Ken tried defending himself and getting them to kill Taichi instead. They voted Ken dead, and Ken said he was a townsperson. Everyone facefaulted or laughed and Ken's last words were that he thought Taichi was the Mafia. Yamato told them all to go to sleep.

"Mafia, wake up." 

Takeru opened his eyes. Ken noticed it and smirked. The good thing about being 'dead' is that you get to find out who the Mafia and the Cop are because you aren't playing anymore.

"Who do you want to kill?"

Takeru glanced at Sora and pointed the tip of his finger in her direction.

"Okay, go to sleep." Takeru did.

"Cop, wake up."

Iori opened his eyes.

"Who do you think is the Mafia?"

He pointed at Taichi. Yamato shook his head and Iori shut his eyes again.

"Everyone, wake up. A life was taken in the night. Stabbed to death, poor thing. Sora, I'm afraid you're dead."

Sora dropped her mouth open in a grin and everyone laughed.

"Your last words?"

"Taichi, you're so evil!"

They all laughed again and eyed Taichi suspiciously. He gulped and tried to remain calm, knowing that if he showed any emotion, he'd be dead in a second.

Iori knew that Taichi was next to be voted dead, and wondered if he should stick up for him, knowing that it wasn't him, but then people might figure out he's the cop and the Mafia would kill him right away. He decided to remain silent and watch.

Sure enough, Taichi was voted dead, and Yamato asked him, "Taichi, what were you?"

"A townsperson!" he yelled at them, and they all laughed.

"Oops."

"Last words, Taichi?"

"Um. I think it was...Iori. He's too quiet."

Iori rolled his eyes and grinned, trying to stay neutral. If he was voted dead, it was game over, Mafia wins. 

"Okay, go to sleep, people!" 

The Mafia awoke and Sora playfully glared at him for killing her. Takeru smiled and glanced towards Koushirou. Yamato nodded and Takeru shut his eyes.

"Cop, wake up. Your guess is...?"  


Iori looked at Takeru. Yamato grinned and nodded and Iori kept from laughing and shut his eyes again.

"Okay, everyone wake up. Koushirou's dead. Last words?"  


"I don't know. I'm leaning towards Mimi or Iori. They are too quiet."

"Okay, everyone argue."

"It's Takeru!" Iori blurted. Takeru looked at him quickly, eyes slightly wide. He suddenly knew Iori was the Cop and pointed at the younger boy.

"No, it's Iori!"

"I'm the Cop, you guys! I asked Yama and he said Takeru's the Mafia!"

"No, it's the other way around! Isn't he suspicious enough to you?"

The room tensed as people looked from Iori to Takeru, trying to decide who was telling the truth. They took a vote and Iori had the majority for him. 

"Iori, what were you?" Yamato asked, smirking.

"The cop," he grumbled, glaring at them all.

They all groaned and laughed.

"Mafia wins! Congratulations, Takeru," Yamato said.

Takeru leapt into the air. "Yes!"

"I love this game. You get to kill your friends," Mimi smirked. They all laughed and agreed with her wholeheartedly. 

"We have to play again."

"This time I'm God!"

"I want to be God!"

They settled on Daisuke playing God, and played again. This time, Mimi was the Mafia and Koushirou was the Cop, and Mimi won when she killed Koushirou without even knowing he was the Cop.

They played a few more times until it grew dark and people began heading home. 

~ ~ ~ ~  


A/N: I love this game so much. My family and I play it sometimes, and everyone always kills my poor aunt first. It's become tradition, almost. It's rather funny. Anyways, R/R, please!


	7. A Song For Takeru

A/N: Which chapter is this? I've lost track. The seventh chapter, right? Anyways, hope you enjoy it. It's fun to write Takeru and Ken hanging out. Oh, and I finally tried out what I've been wanting to try out forever but never got around to it. I had Daisuke hang out with Koushirou in this chapter. I don't know why I think those two would be great friends. Daisuke and Koushirou, wreaking havoc upon the innocent citizens of the city! Well, I think it sounds good. Anyways, R/R.

A Song For Takeru

On a Monday afternoon, with the sun shining brightly outside, school was the last place Daisuke wanted to be. However, he, Takeru, and Ken had to make up a test that they had conveniently all been absent for when they had caught each other's sicknesses. They sat in the small classroom, with Daisuke in the back left corner desk, Takeru in the middle of the classroom, and Ken in the front right corner desk. Daisuke stared down at the paper and felt his eyes drooping. He didn't want to fall asleep, but at the same time, it was tempting. 

The teacher walked up to the front of the classroom and whispered to them, "I'm going to the restroom."

They glanced up and nodded. He left the room and Daisuke automatically turned to the others.

"Hey, Takeru," he whispered. "What's the answer to number one?"

"F," the blonde whispered back. 

Daisuke looked down at his paper, furrowed his brow, and looked up at his friend. "There is no F," he whispered.

Takeru turned to grin at him. "You're very perceptive," he whispered in reply.

Daisuke grumbled to himself, and then whispered a bit more loudly, "Ken, what's the answer for number one?"

Ken turned and whispered, "The fifth one to the last."

"There's only four."

"You're very perceptive."

"Why does everyone think I'm perceptive?" Daisuke whispered loudly. 

Takeru and Ken shared a grin. Suddenly, Daisuke frowned.

"Why are we whispering?" he whispered.

Takeru and Ken blinked. "I don't know," Ken whispered in reply.

The teacher came back and they all quickly looked down at their papers.

"Welcome back," Takeru whispered to the teacher.

The teacher laughed a little and asked out loud, "Why are you whispering?"

Takeru blinked. Daisuke and Ken laughed out loud.

~ ~ ~ ~

Daisuke walked home, arms behind his head, sighing. Today was going to be another uneventful day, in an uneventful week. He looked forward to Halloween, which was coming up at the end of the month.

"Speaking of Halloween," he said to himself, unfolding his arms and staring up at the sky, "when is it going to start getting cold? It's the beginning of October, and the sun's still bright."

He raised an eyebrow to himself, and slowly began walking again. He passed by the weird guy that always sits on the bench at the bus stop. He was an old man that never ever moved from his place on the seat. Daisuke had once sat on the bench and tried to strike up a conversation with him.

He had asked, "What's your name?"

The old man had replied, "Jerry."

"Jerry, why do you always sit here?"

"I'm waiting for it to snow. My wife told me to sit out here and wait until it snows, and then I can go back home."

"Why'd she tell you that?"

"We had an argument."

"But...it never snows here. It stopped snowing years ago. You're never going to get home if you wait until it starts snowing again."

"I'll do it for love."

Daisuke had raised an eyebrow. "Jerry...you do know that your wife di-I mean, passed away years ago, right? Mrs. Takasugi, right?"

The old man had smiled at him. "Yes, that is her name, but I'm afraid you're wrong about her being dead. You see...I've seen her."

Daisuke had then seen Hikari walking down the street with Miyako, giggling, and hadn't wanted her to think he was weird for sitting and chatting with the old man, so he had said goodbye and walked away.

The last words he had heard the man say were, "No, not goodbye. See you later."

Now, in the present, Daisuke smiled and walked to the bench. He stood behind Jerry and tilted his head to see the man's face.

"Hey, Jerry."

Jerry looked up at him, smiled, and nodded a hello. Then, Jerry looked up at the sky, as if expecting snow to fall any minute. Daisuke shook his head slowly and walked away from the bench.

"See you later, Jerry."

"See you later," he heard the old man reply.

Daisuke felt a sort of mystical feeling, and for a while, believed that snow truly would fall from the sky if he wished it enough. He closed his eyes and silently thought of a wish, a wish that Jerry would be able to see snow sometime in the rest of his lifetime and finally return home.

~ ~ ~ ~

When Daisuke finally got home, he found that he was incredibly bored. His parents were out of the house for a shopping trip, his sister was also out at a mall with her friends, and now Daisuke had the entire house to himself, but it felt too empty and lifeless for that fact to excite him.

His stomach rumbled, and he decided he should go out with a friend to eat. He ran to the phone and looked at his speeddial list, and saw that Takeru was the first one of his friends listed. He quickly pressed the number for Takeru's home, waited a few rings, and then heard someone pick up.

"Hello?"  


"Mrs. Takaishi? This is Daisuke. Is Takeru there?"

"No, he's out at a restaurant with Ken right now. Shall I have him call you back?"

"No, it's okay. Well, thanks anyways. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

He hung up and grumbled. Takeru was out with Ken. At a restaurant. His two friends had abandoned him in his time of need...for good food. Just perfect. Daisuke didn't quite know why the thought of Takeru and Ken out at a restaurant together made him so angry, but he shook it off. Fine. Let them go eat at their stupid restaurant. He'd just have to go with someone else.

He ran his finger down the list, skipping Ken, who was after Takeru, and seeing that Kari was next. He wondered if Taichi was in, since Kari would never agree to be seen in public with him if she could help it. He called the number. 

A minute later, he hung up, his eye twitching. Taichi was out with Yamato. What was this, abandon on Daisuke's need for food day? He moved his finger down the list. Under Taichi was Koushirou. Daisuke punched in the number and tapped his foot.

This time, Koushirou answered. "Hello?"  


"Want to go to a restaurant with me, or are you busy?" Daisuke demanded.

"Uh...sure, I'll go."

"Good!" Daisuke almost slammed the phone down, but then pulled the phone up again.

"Where do you want to eat?" he asked in a normal voice.

"I don't know. McDonalds fine? I don't have much money right now."

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll be right over."

"Do you remember where I live?"

Daisuke paused, thinking, and then sighed. "Will you pick me up?"  


"Yeah. I'll be over in a few minutes."

~ ~ ~ ~

Daisuke tapped his fingers on the tabletop as he bit into his burger. His fingers found the beat and matched it, and Daisuke nodded his head as he listened to the music. Koushirou had the other earphone in his ear, and was also bobbing his head a bit. They had the CD player on the table, playing a mixed CD. Right now, "Damnit" by Blink-182 was on.

Koushirou chomped on a french fry and swallowed.

"You know, Dai, you're the most diverse person I know, music-wise. You have almost everything."

Daisuke smirked and shrugged. "I try not to pick favorites."

"You seem to have everyone else's favorites, though."

Daisuke smiled. "I tend to take other people's favorite songs, put them all together, and compare them. I'll have an Eminem song for Ken, then a trance song for Takeru, then it'll turn into a KoRn song for Yamato, shift into a love song for Sora, mutate into an old rock song for Taichi, and I'll finish it off with a Deftones song for you."

"You have everyone all figured out, don't you?" Koushirou asked, smirking.

"Yeah," Daisuke replied, but looked down, dropping his smile as he did.

Koushirou had noticed something that had caught his attention. Daisuke hadn't mentioned a song for Kari. 

"Hey, Dai, are you going to eat the rest of your fries?"

Daisuke waved his hand, indicating that Koushirou could have them. Koushirou reached over as "Heaven" by DJ Sammy vs. Yanou came out. 

"Hey, a song for Takeru," he said.

Daisuke glanced up, looking at his CD player. He smiled gently. "Yeah. I love trance and techno."

"I know you do," Koushirou replied. He didn't mention how he had noticed Daisuke had begun loving the music after Takeru had taken him to his first rave, but before then, he had always called Takeru's music "crap that all sounds the same."

"Isn't there another Teen's Night coming up at the club you guys like?" Koushirou asked.

Daisuke perked up. "There sure is! I can't wait. I've been practicing my dancing. I'm going to outdance Takeru someday."

"Yeah, right. Takeru is the best dancer that I know." Koushirou laughed as Daisuke only grew more determined.

"Which is why I'm going to outdo him!"

"Of course." Koushirou sipped at his coke. 

"I am."

"I believe you." Sip. Slurp. "We done yet?"

"Yeah, let's go."

  
~ ~ ~ ~

"It's about damn time we got our food!"

Takeru blushed and hid his face in his hands while the waitress stuttered an apology and slipped away. Ken growled to himself and gripped his hot dog. Ken was the only person Takeru knew that ordered things like hot dogs and ham sandwiches at restaurants. Takeru poked at his ravioli.

"Ken, don't make a scene."

"I'm not!"

Ken dodged the straw wrapper aimed at him and it bounced off of the back of the head of the man sitting in the next booth. Takeru gasped and ducked his head again, but the man didn't turn around. Ken looked at him and Takeru looked back at Ken, and then the two boys laughed into their hands.

"Okay, so if you could be any color you wanted to be, which color would you be? I would be amethyst, to match my eyes."

"I'd be cinnamon," Takeru replied, smiling dreamily. Ken rolled his eyes. 

"Gee, I wonder whose eyes you're trying to match."

Takeru giggled and dodged the paper Ken threw at him. He straightened up and shoved a piece of ravioli into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed, and then smiled.

"Hey, Ken...who do _you_ like?"

"I like a lot of people."

"You know what I mean. Who do you like like?"  


"I don't like like anybody."

"Liar."

Ken smirked and rested his chin on his hand. "Who would you guess I liked?"

"I don't know. You don't flirt with anybody."

"I can't flirt. It isn't in my abilities to flirt."

"Oh, anyone can flirt. You just have to be really friendly with someone."

"You never flirt with Daisuke," Ken accused him.

Takeru blushed and looked around, as if expecting one of their friends or the redhead himself to be sitting near enough to hear them. He looked at Ken, narrowing his eyes.

"There's a reason for that. If I flirted with Daisuke, he'd hit me."

"What if he hit _on_ you?"

"Oh, yeah, right," Takeru laughed, drinking some of his coke. 

Ken shrugged. "It could happen. I mean it, though, Takeru. If you really want this guy, you have to flirt with him. Get him interested. See if he's interested already."

Takeru thought to himself, sipping on his coke again. "I guess I could be more flirty. It isn't as if Dai would even notice. He's so thick sometimes I want to hit him over the head and scream at him."

"I know what you mean," Ken muttered, rolling his eyes. He couldn't believe Dai couldn't see the way Takeru looked at him all the time, with those big dreamy lovey-dovey eyes. "So, are you going to flirt?"  


"I suppose I'll give it a try," Takeru mumbled.

Ken pumped his fist into the air. "Wahoo!" 

"Ken, stop it! Honestly, don't you know how to act in a restaurant?"

His friend gave him an innocent look. "I have no idea what you're talking about Takeru. I'm a very polite person."

"Which you proved already with the waitress," Takeru added.

Ken narrowed his eyes. "Well, she never brought us our food."

Takeru sighed. They finished their food and asked for the check. They paid half-and-half and got out of the restaurant, laughing and talking.

Later, at home, as he was trying to drift off to sleep, Takeru remembered that Ken had avoided the subject of who he liked, and wondered if Ken was keeping a secret crush on someone hidden from him.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Okay, let me see. In the next chapter, Takeru tries to flirt with Daisuke more. Later, I'll do the Teen Night at the "club" if you guys want me to. Also, we have Halloween coming up, which will be fun. Um, any suggestions on who Ken's crush could be? I'm undecided. Review this chapter, please?


	8. Cold Weather

A/N: Welcome to chapter eight! Glad that you've stayed with me so far. In this chapter you see a little Takesuke cuteness. It isn't much, but at least it's something, right? 

A note: Chinese fire drill is a game that you play in a car where, if you get a red light, and someone yells out "Chinese fire drill!", then everyone in the car has to open their doors and move to a seat that they weren't in before. I didn't come up with this, so I don't own the idea for this game. 

Cold Weather

The cold front came unexpectedly. One day it was sunny and sticky, and the next, you couldn't step outside without the protection of a jacket or sweater and the warmth of hot chocolate in your belly. 

Daisuke was ecstatic as he happily pulled his favorite hooded sweatshirt out of the depths of his closet and yanked it on over his t-shirt. He whistled and danced around a bit as he slid his feet into his Converse shoes and walked to his dresser. He grabbed random necklaces, chains, and bracelets out of the black jewelry box resting on the dresser and slipped them on. 

He wandered into the kitchen area and grabbed the steaming mug of hot chocolate from the kitchen table that his mother had probably left there minutes before. He blew on it, trying to cool it down a bit, and sipped at it as he sat at the table and grabbed the comics section from the newspaper on the table. He unfolded it and began reading them, occasionally sipping at his hot chocolate. When it cooled down enough, he gulped the rest of it down quickly and set the comics down. He stood and placed the empty mug in the sink, and then walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth and his hair. 

When he was ready, he grabbed his backpack and walked to the door. He called a goodbye and heard faint replies from the other members of his family as he shut the door behind himself. He smiled as he inhaled the cool morning air and began walking down the street, towards Takeru's house.

When he got there, Takeru and Ken were waiting, talking in lowered voices, arms crossed and leaning against the gate in front of the house. When they saw him approach, they moved off of the gate and grinned at him.

Takeru was wearing a light blue hoodie over a white shirt and dark blue jeans, and Ken was wearing a dark grey hoodie over a dark blue shirt and baggy black jeans. Daisuke was wearing his orange Psyche Ward hoodie over a white shirt and baggy blue jeans, and as he walked, he heard the sound of his pants dragging against the cement of the sidewalk. 

They walked to the high school, with Takeru and Daisuke doing most of the talking, since Ken was half-dead in the mornings and didn't fully wake up until second block. Daisuke had his earphones on, and he had to turn the volume down a bit in order to talk to Takeru properly without having to yell "What?!" after every sentence.

"We're having a test today, aren't we?" Takeru asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"We are?" Daisuke asked, raising an eyebrow. He made a mental note to look over his notes before class began. Takeru smirked and shook his head slightly.

"Don't you ever pay attention in class?"

"Uh...no?"

"It's coooold!" Takeru whined, slipping an arm through Daisuke's and hugging the shorter boy's arm tightly. 

Daisuke laughed and ruffled Takeru's hair. Takeru raised a hand to ruffle Daisuke's hair, but the redhead blocked it.

"Hey, hey, not my hair! It's fine to ruffle _your_ hair, but not _my_ hair. Mine's actually styled somehow."

Takeru ran his fingers through his own hair, fixing it. "Yeah, yeah. What're you listening to?"

"KoRn." Daisuke took an earphone off and offered it to Takeru. The blonde gladly accepted it and slid it into his own ear.

They listened to "Thoughtless" and sang along as they walked up to the school. 

~ ~ ~ ~  
  
"That test was easy." 

"Yeah, for once. I hate that teacher. She always makes such hard tests. She must be in love or something. She's been so nice lately."

"You hate all of your teachers. Her tests aren't that hard, it's just that you don't study. And I believe she's married...maybe she went on a second honeymoon or something."

"When I grow up, I'm going to have a third and fourth honeymoon...maybe even more."

"When I grow up, every second spent with my lover is going to be like another honeymoon."

"Takeru, the ever-romantic."

Takeru blushed and Daisuke smirked.

"I am not."

"Yeah, you are. Hey, I bet you're in love. You've been really shiny-eyed lately."

Takeru blushed even more. "I have?"

"Yeah." Daisuke smirked. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"Uh..."

"Why do you want to know?" Ken asked, joining the conversation.

"Welcome back to life, Ken," Takeru said, sounding a little relieved. 

"I don't know, I'm just curious," Daisuke answered him, fiddling with the straw in his hands.

"How could you have noticed shiny-eyed Takeru? You're the most dense person I know, besides Taichi, and he isn't even as bad as you are."

"I'm not _that _dense," Daisuke defended himself weakly.

"Yeah you are," Takeru said, smirking.

"Shut up. Anyways, who've you got a crush on, Takeru? And don't say you aren't crushing on anyone, because it's become a little obvious that you're pining after someone."

"You couldn't get it out of me if you tried."

Daisuke rolled his eyes, but didn't answer, knowing the blonde could be just as stubborn as his older brother. 

Ken changed the subject to what answers Takeru got on the test, and Daisuke forgot all about Takeru's crush and eagerly listened to see if he had done well on the test.

~ ~ ~ ~

"We've got to go somewhere tonight."

"It's a school night. Who goes out on a Tuesday night? Besides, it's chilly."

"That's why we should go out! To celebrate the first cold day of the school year!"

"Taichi's right. We should go out."

"You're just trying to get out of doing chores, Yamato. Anyways, I agree with Tai and Yama. We must go somewhere to eat or something. It's been too long since we've gone anywhere at night."

"All in favor of going out?"

Everyone but Ken raised their hands, so he grumbled and slowly lifted his hand to agree. 

"All right, all right, I'll join you all."

"Great, where do we go?"

~ ~ ~ ~

"Come on, let me drive the rest of the way."

"No way. Your mother would kill me. Stay in the backseat, Dai. This is _my_ car, so _I_ get to drive it. And _I_ get to choose the music," Yamato added, as he slapped Tai's hand away from the radio.

Daisuke pouted and leaned back into his seat. Takeru turned and smiled at him.

"You'll get your own car in a year, Dai. You can wait until then."

"No, I can't," Daisuke argued, but he smiled as he snuggled into the comfy car seat and leant against the window. 

"Of course you can't. You can't wait for anything," Ken commented from Takeru's other side. 

Daisuke stuck his tongue out at Ken and Takeru willed himself not to lean forward and kiss him because he looked so adorably cute doing it.

"Are we almost there yet?"  


"We'll be there in about ten minutes. Sit still."

"Ten minutes?" Daisuke whined. Yamato looked into the rearview mirror and shot him a warning glance. 

Daisuke fell back against his seat again, pouting.

Taichi snorted as he laughed into his hands and Yamato turned his glare to the brunette. 

"Don't you start, too."

"Yes, mother," Taichi responded sarcastically.

Takeru rolled his eyes and snuggled back against the seat. He glanced towards Daisuke out of the corner of his eye and remembered that he was supposed to flirt with him more. Takeru slowly tilted his head to the side until it rested on Daisuke's shoulder. 

When Daisuke didn't pull away, Takeru adjusted himself on the seat and rested his head more fully on Daisuke's shoulder, gently nuzzling into him. 

Daisuke felt Takeru nuzzle him and he looked towards the blonde. He saw Takeru peacefully resting on his shoulder, his golden locks of hair gently falling over his fair skin and his eyes closed, a faint smile on his lips. He thought Takeru's cheeks looked a little pink. 

It felt strangely comforting to Daisuke to have Takeru's head on his shoulder and he smiled to himself. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the window again. 

Ken opened his own eyes to look over at his friends and saw their position. He looked away quickly and stared intensely out the window, trying to block it from his mind. He took a deep breath and glanced over at them again.

Takeru opened one eye slightly and peeked at Ken. He made eye contact and smiled, and Ken hesitantly smiled back and gave him a thumbs-up sign. 

As soon as Takeru closed his eye again, Ken cringed slightly and pulled his legs up onto the seat. He crossed them and leant forward a bit, pressing his forehead against the window, and stared out through his dark violet hair at the passing street lamps.

Soon, Yamato signaled and turned right, and they all began to sit up and rub their eyes. Yamato parked and he and Taichi opened their doors. The three younger ones stepped out of the car as well. They walked into the restaurant, and noticed that the other car full of their friends was just pulling up.

Koushirou got out of the driver's seat and Sora climbed out of the passenger's seat. Mimi and Iori got out of the backseat and the four walked up to the restaurant, carrying on whatever conversation they'd been having in the car.

They all walked into the restaurant together and gladly closed the door, rubbing their arms to warm themselves up.

Taichi asked for orders from his group and Koushirou handled the ones from his, and everyone else went to get tables. Taichi and Yamato had one booth all to themselves, Takeru, Daisuke, Ken, and Sora had another to themselves, and Koushirou, Mimi, and Iori snagged the last table.

They got their drinks and food a few minutes later - they had chosen a fast food restaurant so they could get out of there sooner - and all happily ate their food and talked amongst themselves.

"So, what do you think about your little brother and my clone? Is it just me or were they cuddling in the backseat the whole way over here?"

"You noticed, too?" Yamato grinned and sipped at his coke. "Hey, if that's what Takeru wants, he should go for it."

"Isn't it weird, though? Mini-me and mini-you becoming a couple the way we did?"

"Maybe not exactly the way we did. We didn't start out nice and lovey-dovey, you know."

"Yeah, I remember. I hope they don't have as much trouble as we did getting together."

Yamato looked out the window and bit into his burger. Taichi looked down at the table, and then up at Yamato's hand, which was on the table. He slowly reached over and took Yamato's hand in his, gently rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand. Yamato turned to look at him and smiled, and Taichi smiled back. 

Yamato frowned suddenly, as if in thought. "There's still the issue of Hikari, though. Is Dai over her or what? He doesn't seem to be pining after her as much anymore."

"I don't know. Hikari hasn't been whining to me about him lately. Maybe he's finally backed off and started liking your brother?"

"I hope so. I couldn't stand it if Daisuke carried on that hopeless crush any longer. It was so...annoying. Not him, the way she treated him."

Taichi looked down at the table and played with his straw wrapper. "Yeah," he replied, not daring to say anything about his sister, no matter how much he disapproved of her behavior towards Daisuke's crush on her.

Over in the next booth, Koushirou was watching, amused, as Mimi attempted to balance the salt shaker on the end of her straw. She succeeded and cheered just as the salt shaker fell off and dumped salt all over the table.

"Oops."

She brushed the salt off of the end of the table. Iori attempted to do the same and his lasted a good deal longer than Mimi's did, and he finally took it off himself and set it down. 

"So anyways, when are you going to return my Johnny The Homicidal Maniac comics to me?"

Mimi looked at Koushirou and thought awhile. "Oh, that's right, I never gave them back. Sorry. I have them at home. I'll take them to school tomorrow."

"I want to read them," Iori said.

Koushirou and Mimi looked at each other.

"I don't know, Iori, it's kind of...disturbing, for lack of a better word," Koushirou warned him.

"It's not for the weak-hearted."

"What do you take me for?" Iori asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do I really strike you as weak-hearted?"

They looked at each other again and shared a smile.

"No," Koushirou answered. "Okay, I'll lend them to you when she brings them back."

"Okay."

"OW!"

They all turned around to look at the booth in the corner of the restaurant. Ken rubbed his hands, glaring at Daisuke, who looked as if he would burst into laughter any moment if his friend were not sending him the Glare of Death.

"You aren't supposed to hit that hard, Daisuke."

"Sorry."

"It's my turn now."

Ken held his hands up in the air, next to each other, palm-up, and Daisuke placed his gently over Ken's, palm-down. Ken waited a few seconds and then pulled his away and tried to slap Daisuke's hands before Daisuke could pull them back. He was too late, and they assumed position again. Ken pulled out and slapped his hands before Daisuke could react and Daisuke rubbed his hands, whining.

"You slapped hard on purpose!"

"I was getting you back. Revenge is fair."

"Not if you're wearing a ring!"

Takeru and Sora laughed as they watched the entertainment. 

"This is actually sort of interesting," Takeru commented.

"Sort of," Sora agreed, smirking.

She turned to Takeru and sipped some of her Sprite, and then swallowed. 

"Hey, Takeru?"

  
"Yeah?" He turned towards her and swallowed the piece of cheeseburger in his mouth.

"Will you go with me to get more ketchup packets?"

"Sure."

He slid out of the booth and Sora slid out of hers, leaving Daisuke and Ken still slapping at each other's hands from opposite sides of the table. 

They walked to the front of the restaurant, where they had the straws and ketchup, and Takeru leaned against the counter.

"So, how are things with your love life?" she asked as soon as they were out of earshot of everyone.

Takeru laughed. "Well, aren't you curious?"

Sora smiled at him and winked and he turned towards her, still leaning against the counter.

"Well, I haven't told him yet, but I am flirting with him."

"You should just tell him. Get it off of your chest."

"Well, yeah, I will. Soon. Really," he added as she sent him a look. 

"I told you, Takeru. The sooner you tell him, the better."

"I know, I know. It's just that...well, I figured that if I flirt with him now and drop more hints, it'll make the impact of my confession less extreme."

Sora thought about that. "I guess you're right. Just make sure you tell him before he goes and gets with some other person, like Kari."

"Yeah, like Kari would ever go out with him."

Sora smiled. "You never know what life is going to throw at you next, Takeru. Anticipate everything, and you won't be caught too much off guard."

"I won't be caught off guard," he assured her.

"Don't be so certain, Takeru. Only fools are one hundred percent sure."

"I know, I know. Quit spouting advice to me so we can get back to our food. I'm afraid Daisuke may have ate the rest of my burger by now."

Sora slapped his arm and followed him back to the booth. 

They all finished their food and threw the garbage away. 

~ ~ ~ ~

"I can't believe I'm getting all of the red lights," Taichi complained, leaning his head back against the seat as he slowed behind the car in front of him. 

They sat in silence for a while, and then Taichi suddenly had an idea. 

"Chinese fire drill!" he called out.

They all looked at each other, and then hurriedly opened their doors. Taichi sprinted around the front of the car and climbed into the passenger seat and Yamato leapt into the open door and closed it behind him, now in the driver's seat. In the back seat, the boys had switched around so that Takeru was against the left window, Daisuke was in the middle, and Ken was against the right window.

They all laughed as the light turned green just as Yamato put his seat belt on and shifted into Drive. 

"We haven't done that in ages," Taichi said, taking deep breaths.

"Damn you," Yamato grumbled. "I don't wanna drive." 

The younger ones all laughed.

"I love Chinese fire drill," Daisuke said, hopping up and down in his seat.

"I don't," Yamato grumbled. 

"That's because I always do it when I get tired of driving and I want to make you drive," Taichi told him.

"Or when you were in the middle and you wanted the window seat," Yamato added.

"Or when you just wanted to piss us off," Takeru chimed in.

"We'd do that at every red light and keep switching because neither of us ever wanted to drive," Taichi said, smirking at Yamato.

"I know. I have to admit, it was funny when Sora or Jyou would get so tired of it that they would come to the front and drive for us. Of course, we never had any more Chinese fire drills when they were driving."

"Party poopers," Daisuke said.

"No, I think they just didn't want to get run over," Ken said.

They all looked at him in surprise because he'd actually contributed to the conversation, but he'd already closed his eyes again.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: I'm going to stop here because my hands are tired and I can't think of anything else. Anyways, Teen Night is coming up in either the next chapter or the chapter after that, and Halloween will be here soon. Chinese fire drill! Hehe...you know, I've never done one of those. I'd like to try it someday. It would be pretty fun. I gave you a little hint as to who Ken's crush is going to be. Didn't catch it? Well, it's going to be revealed in the next chapter, so don't worry if you missed it. Hey, review and tell me how I'm doing or something. I know it's moving veeeeery slowly, but I've always written things in a rush, and I want to be able to slow things done for once. 

I need to ask you guys something. Do you want things to stay fluffy through the entire fic, or do you want things to get angsty? I've got two separate endings in my head. They're both happy endings, but the roads to getting there are different because one is fluffy and one is angsty. 


	9. Ken's Secret

A/N: Yay, another chapter. I've really been in the writing mood for this fic lately. Okay, so let me see...no songs mentioned in this chapter. Um. In this chapter, Ken reveals his crush, and we learn of how Yamato and Taichi came to be a couple. Oh, boy. 

I just want to mention that I bought these new pants, and they're HUGE. I mean reaaaaally baaaaaggy. It's so funny, because my legs are thin, so they fit me humongous. I love them! Just wanted to say that...

Ken's Secret

"I can't wait for tomorrow night!" Takeru bounced on his bed. Ken stared at him, amused, and waited for him to fall off the way he always did when he bounced on the bed. He realized the blonde was expecting an answer.

"Yeah. Me either."

"You don't sound very enthusiastic."

"I'm tired."

"You're always tired. Tired of everything, right? I don't see how you can dish out such positive advice and tell people that everything is going to be okay while suffering from your own depression."

"I'm not depressed, I'm just tired."

"Doesn't being tired make you depressed? Being hyper sort of automatically gets you in a good mood, doesn't it?"

"I don't know."

Takeru stopped bouncing and looked at Ken. The violet-haired boy had his head down on a pillow and his eyes shut. He did look tired. 

"Hey, Ken, what's been eating at you lately?"

Ken opened his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"No, don't give me that. I know something's been bothering you. The way you deal with problems is sleeping it off. Nowadays you're always asleep or at least half-asleep, wherever you go." Takeru looked concerned. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, okay? Drop it." Ken turned away from him and nuzzled the pillow. It was so warm and comforting. He needed that comfort. He needed that promise of taking him off to a dream world where he couldn't be hurt.

"No, Ken, I'm not going to drop it."

Ken opened his eyes and rolled them, sighing. "Takeru, forget about it, okay? You aren't going to get it out of me."

Takeru frowned as he stared at his friend's back. He looked up at the ceiling, and then down at the bed, and then he moved to lay next to Ken. 

"Ken?"  


"What?" he asked irritably.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping me out with Daisuke. It really means a lot to me," Takeru said softly.

Ken stared hard at the wall. "I have to do what I can to make you happy."

The way he had said that reminded Takeru of brainwashed zombies chanting something like, "We must serve Lord Myotismon." 

"What are you talking about?"

Ken turned towards him and stared hard into his eyes. Takeru did his best not to break the eye contact and tried to search Ken's eyes for hidden feelings.

"Do you know why I never told you who I have a crush on?"

Takeru was caught off guard by the question. He figured that this crush must have been what was troubling Ken.

"No, I don't know. Why?"

Ken looked away, as if contemplating whether or not to tell Takeru the truth. He sighed deeply and looked at the spot just above Takeru's shoulder.

"Because he's in love with someone else."

Takeru felt a pang of sadness for his friend. "Oh, I'm sorry. Well, maybe he'll forget about whoever he's in love with?"  


"I doubt it." Ken looked straight into his eyes. "You know him very well."

Takeru searched his mind for someone that was in love with someone else that he knew well. He gasped.

"It isn't Taichi or Yamato, is it?"

"No."

"Oh, good, because if it was then you'd have absolutely no chance there." Takeru laughed a little and then stopped and tried to get serious again.

"You know him better than anyone else in the world."

Takeru's eyes flashed confusion. "But the only people I'm that close to are Yamato and maybe you and Daisuke." Takeru's eyes went wide. "Oh my God. Please don't tell me you like Daisuke."

"No, no, it isn't him."

Takeru automatically felt relief, and then confusion again. "But who would I know that well that loves some-"

He stopped, suddenly hit with realization. He stared hard into Ken's eyes, his eyebrows furrowing. Ken bit his lip and willed himself not to look away or his eyes to tear up. 

"You mean..." Takeru trailed off. 

Ken leaned forward and gently brushed his lips over Takeru's. Takeru's eyes widened even more, and his body froze. Ken pulled away again and Takeru saw that there were tears in his eyes now.

"I'm sorry," Ken whispered.

Takeru somehow found his voice. "Don't be. It's not your fault you have a crush on me. Hell, look at me, I have a crush on Daisuke, and it is sort of the same...liking your best male friend, I mean."

Ken looked away and took a deep, shuddering breath. "So you see, I am in a difficult situation...being your matchmaker and all, I mean. That's why I sleep so much. I can have you at least in my dreams..."

Takeru felt his cheeks grow slightly warm. "Is that why you made me wear that dress?"

Ken blushed and looked away. "N-no! I really wanted...I just thought...yes."

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence for awhile.

"But then why would you want to get Daisuke and I together?"

Ken smiled and looked at Takeru. "See, Takeru, I have this thing that I live by. Friends first, before everyone else. My friends are the most important people in my life. You're my best friend before my crush, Takeru, and if my best friend is in love with my other best friend and wants him more than anything in the world, then I'm definitely going to help him out. I'll have tons of crushes in my lifetime, and I'll get over all of them. I'm going to get over you someday, you know. Until then, I guess I'll sleep."

Takeru reached out and pulled Ken to him. He hugged him tightly. Ken blushed even more.

"Ta-Takeru! You're hurting me."

"Thank you so much for being such a good friend!" Takeru burst out, practically squealing. "I'd never be able to deal with my thing for Daisuke if it weren't for you. Oh, Ken, thank you so, so much for _everything_!"

"Are you sure you aren't a girl in disguise?" Ken asked him seriously, yanking Takeru's arms off of himself before he died of suffocation. 

"Yes. At least I think so. If I were, though, it would sure explain a lot of things."

Ken held up his hands. "I don't want to know."

They laid in comfortable silence for a while longer. Ken felt a surge of relief that Takeru was so understanding, and Takeru felt a surge of relief that Ken was such a devoted friend.

"Your lips are soft," Takeru whispered to himself.

Ken turned to smile at him. "So are yours."

"Maybe we really are girls."

They burst out laughing. Takeru sat up on his bed and began bouncing up and down again. "I still can't wait for tomorrow night at Teen's Night at the club! It's going to be so much fun!" Takeru bounced a few more times, squealing incoherent things, and then he bounced too far to the right and Ken heard a louder squeal and a thump. 

Ken sat up and looked at Takeru, who was on the floor in a heap. 

~ ~ ~ ~

"What?"

"How did you and Taichi get together?"

"That's what you called me for? Takeru, I'm practicing with my band. We have a gig in two nights. I need to practice."

"All I want to know is one little thing."

Yamato sighed and leaned against the wall, noting that his fellow band members were eyeing him and grumbling about a no-phone-call rule that Yamato always violated when Taichi called him "just to talk."

Yamato was interested in why Takeru would want to know this all of a sudden, but it did irritate him that he couldn't wait to ask him the next day at school.

"Can't you wait for tomorrow?"

"No, I need to know now, or I won't be able to sleep."

"Okay, let me think." Yamato really didn't need to think. He clearly remembered how Taichi and he "got together", but he didn't like to think about it.

"Well, it took a really long time."

"Why?"

"Because I kept turning him down."

There was a brief silence. "What? Why would you turn Taichi down?"

"Because I was in denial about being gay."

"Tell me _everything_."

Yamato sighed and looked at his bandmates. "This is going to take awhile."

They all groaned and decided to practice without him for awhile.

Yamato shifted on his seat. "Well, let me think. Taichi first told me that he liked me when we were in seventh grade. I was very shocked, because I had never even thought of someone like Taichi...well...being that way. I told him that I only liked him as a friend, and we decided that we could still be friends and Taichi would try to get over it. 

"Well, it turns out that there was no way Taichi was going to get over me. He liked me and kept it to himself until we were in the ninth grade and he finally told me he'd had enough, he wasn't going to get over me, and he liked me more than ever. I told him I wasn't like that and I couldn't be with him the way he wanted us to, but I got mad about it because I had begun to start liking him as well and I didn't want to admit it to myself. 

"I started getting more irritated with Taichi every day over the smallest things, and we were always fighting. There was a point where we didn't speak to each other for two whole weeks, and when we finally talked again, it was when I called Taichi a fag and he pounced on me and we beat the crap out of each other. 

"We both went to the nurse and then we both got detention for fighting, and while we were in detention, Taichi wrote me a note saying that he was sorry and asking if we could be friends again. I was tired of fighting with him, so I wrote back saying it was okay and it was really my fault anyways, and sure, we were still friends. We started hanging out again, but then I started getting the feelings harder than ever. One night we were out at a party and I wanted to kiss him so badly that I started avoiding him whenever possible. He noticed I was avoiding him, and he tried to confront me about it. 

"I finally told him that I was avoiding him so that I didn't do something I might regret. He asked me what I meant and I told him I liked him. We kissed and he asked me to be his boyfriend. I said yes, but if he hurt me, I'd hurt him back even worse. He just laughed and said not to worry about that."

Yamato paused, wondering if he should go on. He took a deep breath and started again. 

"About a week later, we slept together. And I don't mean we had a sleepover and we slept in the same bed doing nothing. The next day I felt regret, and I was worried that I had made a big mistake and that now that I had slept with him, he was going to want to do it again. I got so paranoid about what a big step I had taken that I broke up with him. I thought that maybe I could just forget it ever happened and never look back again, sort of like erasing that night. Taichi got so depressed that he tried to kill himself that night. He didn't succeed. His mom found him before it was too late and got him to a hospital.

"As soon as I found out I rushed to the hospital and I held him and I cried my heart out and apologized. I told him exactly why I had dumped him and he was surprised that it was over such a little thing. He thought that I really just didn't like him anymore. When I was holding him in my arms that night, realizing I could have lost him, and realizing how badly it would have affected me if I _had_ lost him, I realized that I had fallen in love with him."

Yamato wiped his eye, surprised that he had actually shed a tear just talking about it. He paused, hearing nothing on the other end of the phone. 

"Takeru, are you still there?"

"Yeah, I am, I'm just amazed. I mean...wow. I didn't know all that had happened. You guys went through so much...I'm sorry I made you remember it."

"It's all right."

"Why didn't I find out that Taichi had attempted suicide?"

"We didn't tell any of you younger kids because you were all still so young. I mean, come on, you were in the sixth grade. Kari knows it happened, of course, but she never spoke about it after that. Come to think of it, none of us did."

"Do all of the older kids know?"

"Yeah."

"So it was smooth sailing after that, then?"

Yamato laughed slightly. "I wish."

Takeru paused. "You mean more bad stuff happened?"

Yamato smiled. "Takeru, this is real life. This isn't fairy tales where everything turns out all right. There are bumps in every relationship, you know."

"What else happened? If you don't mind me asking."

"Not at all. Well, we had our little fights. You know how we can get. We never really had any very bad fights. Not until last summer."

"What happened last summer?"

Yamato leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. "You sure you want to know?"

"Oh, you _can't_ leave me hanging like this. Of course I want to know."

Yamato smiled a little and then frowned again. "Well, last summer, the summer in between my junior and senior year, I went to a party and I got very drunk, and I sort of cheated on Taichi. I slept with someone."

Takeru's eyes widened. "You _slept_ with someone?"

"We were in the middle of a fight and we weren't speaking to each other, but we weren't broken up, so it _was_ cheating. I was so pissed off at Taichi over it that I drank way too much at the party, and I didn't know what had happened the next morning until I rolled over and bumped into someone in the bed. I felt so incredibly guilty that I went straight to Taichi's house and I told him and started crying from the guilt and shame. Literally." Yamato ran a hand through his hair. "Boy, was he mad, but then he listened to my side of the story and he figured that I didn't know what I was doing since I was drunk out of my mind. He got mad at me for drinking so much, though. Gave me a lecture on alcohol poisoning and everything."

Takeru suppressed a laugh at how overprotective Taichi could be of Yamato. "Is that all the bad things?"

"The really bad things? Pretty much."

"Wow. I really had no idea all this had happened."

"Yeah, well..." Yamato shrugged, and then remembered that he was talking to Takeru over the phone. "Anyways, what's with the sudden interest?"

"O-oh nothing, I was just wondering, you know, curious."

Yamato raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Whatever, Takeru. Anyways, if that's all you wanted to know, I've got to get back to practice. The guys look like they want to run over and rip the phone cord out of the wall."

Takeru laughed. "Okay, I'll let you go. See you tomorrow."

"See ya."

They hung up. 

Takeru lay back down on his bed and hugged his pillow tightly, hoping that he wouldn't have that much trouble with Daisuke. 

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: This chapter was getting too long so I decided to wait until the next chapter for the Teen's Night at the club thingie. Please be patient with me! I know this chapter seemed pretty pointless and nothing to do with the fic, but don't worry about it, you'll see later on. (Trying to get you to stay with me here.) Heh...anyways, uh...review? And I decided on keeping it half-angsty and half-fluffy. Well, I'll try to, anyways. And Kathleen, Koushirou is going to get with someone in this fic. Don't worry about that. ^-~ Thanks everyone that reviews this story. I'm so happy that so many of you really like it. ^-^' I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. 


	10. Teen Night

A/N: The part you've all been waiting for...yes, it's here. This chapter is the official start to the real Takesuke! Woooh, yay, and all that junk. This one is all Teen Night and what happens at the club. It's longer than the other chapters, I hope you'll like that. 

Have you all read energy's A Redhead's Wish? It's soooo good. If you haven't read it already, what's wrong with you? Go read it after you read this! O.o' 

Oh, and read any of wormmonsoul's stories. They're all so very good. You must update His dance! x.x' Anyways, I think I'm done with the plug-ins here...so, go ahead, read on!

Teen Night

"Are you almost ready yet?" The blonde asked impatiently. 

"Wait a second. Let me put my stuff on." Daisuke hurried to open his drawer and pull out his black jewelry box. He grabbed an assortment of beaded bracelets, the bracelets with water and glitter inside of them, and the bike chain bracelet he always wore on his right hand. He remembered to also throw on his watch, looked up, and grabbed the goggles from where they hung on a corner of the mirror. 

He grabbed his favorite silver chain with a dragon pendant with ruby eyes, pulled it on over his head and turned to Takeru. 

"How do I look?"

"Stunning," Takeru told him, and grabbed his arm. "Now let's please go. Yamato will beat our heads in if we take any longer."

Daisuke followed him out and heard the familiar scraping of his baggy dark green jeans scraping against the floor as he played with the drawstrings on his black hoodie and whistled a tune. He stopped whistling and reached out to stop the door from smacking him in the face as Takeru impatiently yanked it open, stepped out, and shut it behind himself. He turned to lock it, but Takeru reached back, grabbed a hold of his hood, and yanked him towards the car.

They climbed in and Ken smirked at them. "You've emerged alive. I congratulate you."

Daisuke shrugged. "I guess." He crossed his legs up on the seat and was promptly thrown against the window as Yamato swerved when backing out of the driveway. "Ow. That hurt."

The music was automatically turned up. Koushirou turned to raise an eyebrow at Daisuke from where he sat in the front seat on Taichi's other side (Taichi was in the middle of Yamato and Koushirou). 

"You alive back there?"

"Oh, yeah, I get concussions every day. I'm used to it. I also enjoy getting my brains removed through my nose."

"Good," Koushirou answered, and Daisuke figured that Koushirou probably hadn't heard him correctly over the music.

They zoomed off in the direction of the club. Daisuke wondered to himself if Koushirou was going to spin tonight. He had volunteered to try it out at the last Teen Night party, having taken classes (what classes _hadn't_ Koushirou taken in the course of his life?), and they had told him he could go back and try it again whenever he wished. He hoped that Koushirou would, because the older boy sometimes threw in their own personal favorite songs and announced over the microphone that it was dedicated to them.

(A/N: I have this mental image of Koushirou spinning at the turntables with one headphone pressed to his ear and calling himself something like "DJ Prodigious" or something. Don't ask.)

Soon, they had arrived. Ken had an odd feeling that the strobe lights could cause seizures and imagined to himself for a while one of the ravers dropping to the floor and twitching, but then he shook it off. No, nothing that exciting would probably happen tonight. Tonight was just another ordinary night at the clubs, right?

They found a table that was relatively close to the dance floor, so they could go from there to the dance floor easily, and without having to wiggle around too many people, and they sat down.

"Do you all want to get drinks first or get out there and dance?" Taichi asked them.

"I want a drink," Ken said.

"Forget that, I'm dancing," Daisuke said.

"I'll do whatever you want to do," Yamato said, even though he knew well what Taichi wanted to do, and it wasn't dancing or getting drinks.

"I'm going to go see who's spinning and see if I can get an hour in," Koushirou said.

"Good. Play our songs. The ones that are on the CD we all burned for you," Takeru told him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Koushirou said, waving his hand, and slid out of the booth to wander up the stairs to the DJ's turntable. At the top of the stairs, the DJ that was currently spinning turned to greet Koushirou and talk to him.

Takeru turned to Daisuke, who grinned at him. Takeru knew Daisuke had been practicing his dance moves, and that he wanted to outdance him tonight.

'I'll show him dancing,' Takeru thought gleefully, and they both simultaneously hopped out of their seats and headed towards the dance floor.

Ken sighed and dropped his head down onto the table so hard that Yamato and Taichi both jumped and stared at him before asking him if he needed a head examination or a doctor.

Ken lifted his head again and blinked at them. "I'm only here because they made me come."

"Who knows, Ken? Maybe you'll get lucky tonight." Taichi winked. Yamato poked him and reminded his boyfriend that Ken was only fifteen. 

"So what? We were only fourteen when we-"

Yamato promptly covered Taichi's mouth and so his words were muffled. Yamato glared at his boyfriend and then shot Ken a 'mention-this-to-anyone-and-I'll-kill-you-no-offense' look. Ken shrugged.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Of course you didn't."

Yamato slowly uncovered Taichi's mouth. "Anyways, what my boyfriend here was trying to say was maybe you'll meet someone you like here and they'll ask you to dance."

"Yeah, right. The one I want to dance with _is _dancing. With someone else. Who they will be dancing with all night, I'm sure."

"Is he the _only_ one you want to dance with?"

Ken blinked. "Well, yeah, pretty much. I mean, if anyone else asked me to dance, I probably would, but he's the only one I really _want_ to dance with right now."

"Hmm. What drink do you want?"

"Pina cola-"

"What _nonalcoholic_ drink do you want?"

"Oh. I'll have a Dr. Pepper."

"Okay. Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and a Coke." Yamato reached into his pocket to make sure he had his wallet and then slid out of the booth to go to the bar. Taichi began tapping his fingers on the table to the fast beat of the music.

Ken stared at the brunette's fingers for awhile, sighed, and slumped down in his chair, leaning his head back. Tonight was going to be a very long night.

~ ~ ~ ~  


His hands flowed in a smooth motion that the eye couldn't follow easily at first. They never quite touched, but they danced around each other so quickly that you would think they were touching. Adding feet movement, hopping about a bit, and then getting down on the floor and kicking his legs out in a sort of breakdance-style, Takeru couldn't think of anything else he'd rather do at the moment than what he was doing. 

He knew the pair of eyes were watching his every move. He knew he was being sized up, all around him, and he couldn't help but glance towards his watcher. Cinnamon eyes lit up in a sort of competitive flicker and he managed to smile at him long enough to ensure that the redhead had received the smile. 

Daisuke had improved greatly from their last visit to the club, Takeru hated to admit. Now, listening to "Is This Love" by Terra Skye, Takeru watched as Daisuke made his way towards him, until they were dancing in front of each other, staring each other down as if daring the other to take it a step farther.

Takeru wasn't sure when Daisuke had started being so competitive in his dancing, but it interested him how he'd chosen something this artistic to compete with him over, instead of something not as deep or emotional, like sports. 

Takeru moved even closer to Daisuke, so that they were dancing with each other now instead of in front of each other, and they began copying each other's moves, so that it seemed they had rehearsed together before the way they were going to dance. The bodies all pressed together on the dance floor generated heat that made Takeru want to grab Daisuke and try the dancing that he'd seen in that movie called "Dirty Dancing", but he wasn't sure if Daisuke would be down with that. In fact, he doubted it, but he still liked to imagine it when he was alone in his room or in the middle of a boring classroom lecture. Takeru reminded himself about where he was at the moment and didn't let his thoughts carry him away, concentrating instead on what was going on with his body now, making sure not to mess up and step on Daisuke's feet or anything.

Pretty soon, the song finished and Daisuke nearly fell over onto the floor, instead choosing to collapse against Takeru's arm and motion towards the bar in what could only mean, "Want to get a drink?"

Takeru nodded and they made their way out of the groups of people to the bar. He ordered for both of them, knowing that both Daisuke and Taichi were Sprite fiends, and handed the redhead his Sprite, sipping on his own Coke. 

"Say it," Daisuke told him.

Takeru grinned and looked away. "Nope."

"Say it."

"Nah."

"Come on, _say it_."

Takeru grinned and turned to Daisuke, yet looked over his shoulder.

"Okay, you've gotten a lot better. You're a very good dancer."

"Hell, yes, I've gotten better," the redhead responded in typical Daisuke fashion.

"You still couldn't keep up with me, though," Takeru told him matter-of-factly. Daisuke grinned and looked at Takeru.

"Yeah, you're big shit because you can dance well. Sure."

"Well, I am," Takeru said, sipping at his Coke again and walking towards their table to rest for a bit. 

Daisuke collapsed beside him on the seat. He took a deep breath, looked up, and saw that Ken had his head down on the table and seemed to be arguing with Yamato about something.

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I _don't_."

"Yes, you do, Ken. Just admit it. I've already figured it out."

Ken sighed and lifted his head to rest it on his arms. He didn't know how, but in the past half hour, Yamato had been able to get out of him that he had a crush on Takeru. Yamato was trying to get Ken to admit that he had a much minor crush on someone else as well, that was now building, what with Takeru being preoccupied with his own little (or huge) crush. Ken's words did have some truth to them. He didn't really have a crush on anyone, but his eyes had been wandering to a certain boy they knew lately.

"He does what?" Daisuke asked Yamato.

Yamato shook his head and his hands at Daisuke, as if saying, "Don't ask."

Daisuke shrugged and leaned back against his seat, looking around. "Where's Taichi?"

"Up there with Koushirou, trying to learn how all those controls work," Yamato said, pointing towards the DJ booth up above them.

"Is Koushirou spinning?"

"He has been since that Terra Skye song," Yamato told him.

Takeru had guessed that it was Koushirou. Koushirou had introduced him to that song the week before and liked to sing it out loud to himself when he thought no one could hear him.

Daisuke turned in his seat and poked Takeru. Takeru leaned over so he could hear him.

"Let's go to the bathroom. There's no way I'm going alone in this club."

Takeru nodded and they got out of the booth to go to the restrooms. They had only been there once before, but they remembered where they were and took the path of least resistance to get there. They went in and Takeru leant back against one of the sinks, and then hoisted himself up to sit on the edge of it. Daisuke went to the restroom (Takeru couldn't see because of the stall, and he willed himself not to look around _that_), and then came back to wet his hands and run them through his hair. He checked himself out in the mirror. Daisuke had rolled his long sleeves up to get his hands wet, and Takeru noticed something he had never noticed before because Daisuke always wore long-sleeved shirts. 

"Hey, what's that scratch from?" he asked, pointing at a long scratch on Daisuke's arm.

Daisuke froze and slowly glanced towards the scratch. He winced and turned around to face Takeru fully, forcing a smirk.

"Soccer practice. Duh."

"It isn't soccer season."

"We still practice, just for fun."

"You don't get scratches on your arm from soccer."

Daisuke sighed. "What are you implying? That I scratch myself?"

"You said it, not me."

"Well, I don't. Really, Takeru, _I_ don't scratch _myself_."

Takeru raised an eyebrow. "Then who scratches you?"

Daisuke sighed and ran a hand through his hair again. "Look, just forget about it. No one scratched me. I meant to say that I got scratched doing something else, I really don't remember what."

Takeru gave him a look and Daisuke added, "Really."

Takeru sighed and shrugged. "I guess." He slid off of the sink and walked towards the bathroom entrance, and Daisuke sighed to himself in relief. Takeru had made a mental note to question him further later, but he really didn't feel like finding out in the bathroom at a club.

They went back to their table. Back at the table, they found that no one was present. Takeru guessed that they were all dancing, and watched as Daisuke shrugged, muttered, "Their loss", and began drinking someone else's drink, since his hand run out.

Takeru mentally entertained the fact that he had Daisuke alone and wondered if he should try the flirting thing again. He slid closer to Daisuke until their legs and arms were brushing against each other and he innocently sipped his drink. Daisuke glanced at him and raised an eyebrow slightly, but he didn't move away.

Takeru turned to look at him and smiled. "What?"

"This seat is large enough for the two of us to sit comfortably, you know."

"Is this uncomfortable for you?"

"Sort of," Daisuke admitted. 

Takeru moved away slightly, but he moved his leg farther away so that it was still touching Daisuke's. Daisuke sighed and shrugged it off, tilting his head back so that the ice in the drink would slide into his mouth. He began eating the ice, crunching it in his mouth, and looked around the dance floor for sign of Taichi, Yamato, or Ken. 

He spotted Taichi and Yamato dancing with each other a little ways off. They were dancing _very_ close together and _very_ intimately, from the looks of it. He couldn't quite tell whose legs were whose. Daisuke watched, slightly entranced, as Yamato danced, his hips moving gracefully against Taichi's, his blonde hair, now sweaty, flying through the air as Yamato shook it back out of his face, and the way his body moved. Daisuke quickly looked down at the table, where he was gripping his cup, or at least the cup of whoever it belonged to. 

Takeru noticed the death-grip on the cup and glanced up questioningly at Daisuke, but the redhead wouldn't meet his eyes. Takeru moved closer to him again and, in Daisuke's ear, asked, "Why don't you tell me about those scratches now?"

Daisuke automatically moved away from him, looking slightly panicked, and Takeru's eyes took on a shade of concern. 

"What's wrong?"

Daisuke stared at the tabletop, breathing slightly heavier than usual, and slowly forced himself to meet Takeru's deep blue eyes. 

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I can't trust you that much."

Takeru moved even closer to him. "You can tell me anything, Daisuke. I will never judge you for anything. We're best friends, right? We can tell each other anything. You can trust me never to tell a soul." 

Takeru's eyes looked so comforting and safe to Daisuke that he almost blurted it out right then and there, but Daisuke knew he couldn't. Not there.

"Let's get some fresh air," Daisuke said suddenly, and tilted his head to one of the exit doors. Takeru nodded slowly, and followed the redhead out of the seat and out the exit door. 

They stood out in the cool, fresh air, leaning against a railing, staring at the moon. Daisuke tried to calm his nervous breathing.

"I've never told anyone this. Not a soul. I've always been so scared of someone finding out."

Takeru turned to Daisuke, a pleading look on his face. "Daisuke, I care for you so much. You wouldn't believe. I really need to know, Dai. I need to know what's bothering you."

Daisuke turned and found that Takeru was standing right in front of him, staring deeply into his eyes. Daisuke almost turned away from the intimacy, but he wanted to know everything that Takeru went through once he knew the truth, from his reaction to the way his eyes looked.

"Sometimes, Jun comes home pissed off, and she likes to take it out on me," Daisuke whispered slowly. 

Takeru's eyes clouded in confusion. Jun? He would have expected Daisuke scratching himself, being bullied, or his father hitting him...but Jun, his sister?

"She's a girl, so she doesn't hit me. If she does it doesn't hurt much. She grows her nails out really long...and she grabs me. She scratches me until I bleed, and then she's satisfied and goes away. I don't know why she does it, but she has, for quite a while now. I don't fight back because..." Daisuke trailed off, realizing that he'd been talking very quickly and Takeru may not have understood. He looked at Takeru again to see how he was taking it. Takeru's eyes looked sad. Incredibly sad. Daisuke felt a pang of guilt for making Takeru look that sad.

"I had no idea," Takeru managed. He moved forward and circled Daisuke in his arms. Daisuke was slightly surprised by the hug, but then he felt such warmth and comfort that he pressed his head against Takeru's shoulder and shut his eyes hard. He felt his body sort of collapse into Takeru's and he felt a tear slide down his cheek. 

Takeru stared hard at the floor, rubbing small circles over Daisuke's back, his mind racing as he took in all that had been revealed in the past minute or two. He let Daisuke stay on his shoulder until the redhead pulled back, composed again, and wiped his eyes. Daisuke sniffled and smiled sheepishly at Takeru, blushing slightly. 

"I probably look like such a wimp right now. Crying over how my sister hurts me..."

"No. If Yamato hit me, I wouldn't have the guts to hit him back, either."

  
"But Yamato could kick anybody's ass..."

Takeru laughed slightly. "If it helps any, Dai, Jun is very scary sometimes. She scares even Yamato."

Daisuke smiled slightly. "Well, I guess that's true." He stopped smiling and took an uncertain step towards Takeru.

"Take," he began, "now that you know my secret, I'm going to have to place a lot more trust in you. You have to understand you've bound yourself to me by letting me tell you. I have to know that you'll be there for me when I need you."

Takeru reached out and took Daisuke's hands in his own. "Dai, I'll always be there for you. You just give me a call and I'll meet you anywhere and tell you everything is going to be okay."

Daisuke knew it was a very emotional moment, and he tried not to destroy it. "Well, you're stuck with me now," he joked lightly, smiling.

Takeru smiled back. "I was sort of stuck with you before."

Daisuke shrugged, looking away, and then down at the floor. "If you betray my trust..."

"I won't. I promise." 

Daisuke nodded at the floor, wiped his face again, and tilted his head back, sighing. 

"Since we're revealing things to each other," Takeru began, feeling this was the right moment. 

Daisuke turned to look at him. 

"I've been hiding something from you, too." 

Daisuke waited for him to talk. When he didn't, Daisuke said, "Go ahead. Shoot."

Takeru looked at the floor, and then slowly up at Daisuke, blushing. "I uh...I've been hiding my feelings from you for a while now. I mean, I've been hiding how I truly feel about you."

Daisuke's eyes widened slightly. Takeru went on, faster than before, "And I just want to tell you that I really, really like you."

"More than a friend?" Daisuke asked uncertainly. 

Takeru nodded slowly. Daisuke looked away, biting his lip hard. 

"That's why you've been so friendly lately. That night, in the car, when you put your head on my shoulder. You were flirting, weren't you?"

Takeru nodded slowly. Daisuke smiled a little.

"I thought so." Daisuke stopped smiling. "But...what about Ken?"

Takeru felt a little confused then. "What _about _Ken?"

"I thought he liked you."

"Well, he does," Takeru responded, trying to figure out how Daisuke could have known that, and guessing Ken had told him before.

"I thought you liked him back. That's why I never..." Daisuke trailed off, uncertain, searching Takeru's eyes.

"_What_?" Takeru asked incredulously. "You thought I liked _Ken_?"

"Well, didn't you?"

Takeru shook his head. "No, I never liked Ken in that way."

"Oh." Daisuke blinked. "But then why were you two always together? You were always out together doing something. I thought you guys were secretly going out or something."

Takeru laughed. "No, no, see, I told Ken that I liked you and he offered to help me out. When we went out somewhere, it was always to talk about that and to help me figure out a way to tell you." He paused, smiling. "We never suggested it happening _this_ way, though."

"Ken was helping you get me?" Daisuke asked, blinking. "Why would he do that?"

"Something about how I'm his friend before his crush," Takeru said, waving it off. "What were you saying before, about you thought I liked Ken, and that's why you never...something?"

Daisuke blushed madly and looked to the side. "Uh...oh, that. That? That was nothing. Sort of."

"Dai," Takeru said, raising an eyebrow, "I've already confessed to liking you, so if you like me back, you can say it and I won't react in the negative."

"Oh yeah," Daisuke said, blushing even more.

"So you _do_ like me back?" Takeru asked hopefully.

"Uh," Daisuke said. He blinked. He smiled and laughed at himself a little, rubbing the back of his neck. 

Takeru raised an eyebrow at him again and looked so adorable doing it that Daisuke smiled. He took a step forward and gently pressed his lips to Takeru's. 

When he pulled back, Takeru stared at him awhile before realizing that Daisuke had just kissed him. 

Takeru suddenly grinned widely, looking around in amazement and laughing a little. He pumped his fist in the air. "_Yes_!"

Daisuke laughed and held his arms out as Takeru ran into them. They swung from side to side for a while, hugging each other tightly and running their fingers through each other's hair. 

"Oh, man," Takeru whispered. "This _has_ been an amazing night."

"Yeah," Daisuke agreed, his eyes sparkling slightly. 

Takeru pulled back and gently kissed Daisuke again. He pulled back shyly and smiled slightly, blushing. Daisuke laughed.

"Daisuke Motomiya, will you be my sweet Baboo?" Takeru asked, grinning like a maniac.

Daisuke fought the urge to burst out laughing, grinning crazily back. "Yes, I will."

"Great," Takeru said, his voice breaking into a laugh. 

He slid his hands into Daisuke and motion towards the club with a tilt of his head. "Shall we?"

"Let's shall," Daisuke answered. Takeru, in his completely jovial state, missed the grammar error and led Daisuke back into the club, holding his hand and beaming.

~ ~ ~ ~

"So I don't have a chance with him. Not at all. He's in love, whether he knows it or not. I'm sure he thinks it's just a crush...but...I see otherwise."

The boy sighed, and the one standing next to him rubbed his back in comfort.

"I'm sorry. Hey, believe it or not, I know how you feel."

Ken glanced up at Koushirou, an eyebrow raised. "You do?"

Koushirou nodded slightly, smiling. "I liked Taichi before he started dating Yamato."

Ken's eyes widened. "You did?"

"Yup. But I found out he was head over heels for Yama...and that crush quickly went away. You'll get over it, I promise."

"Yeah, I know I will, but it's taking too long to get over it," Ken replied, pouting.

Koushirou chuckled and smiled at the younger boy. "Don't worry about it. Concentrate on something else. Look around, maybe you'll find out that you like someone else, but didn't realize it before."

Just then, someone walked up to the DJ platform and informed Koushirou that his hour was up.

"Thanks for letting me do this again," Koushirou said. The other guy nodded and smiled, and then moved around them to mess with the controls, getting ready for his own shift. 

Koushirou looked at Ken again, smiling. "Come on, let's go back to the table and see what the others are up too."

"Okay," Ken said, sighing, and followed the older boy down the stairs.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~

Daisuke and Takeru plopped down on the seat, smiling brightly. Taichi and Yamato raised their eyebrows and looked at each other. 

Takeru giggled and put his hand up on top of the table. It was hard not to notice the hand that Takeru's hand was holding and gently rubbing with his thumb.

The older boys got the message and smiled brightly at them.

"Congratulations!" they chimed.

The two younger boys burst out into happy giggling, and they managed a "thank you." 

"I thought you guys would _never_ get together," Taichi said, rolling his eyes.

  
"Well, we have, so...there," Daisuke said, lifting his drink and sipping from it.

"Isn't that my cup?" Yamato asked him.

Daisuke paused and looked down at the cup. He looked up at Yamato and smiled innocently. Yamato glared at him and snatched it away, looked into it, and saw that it was empty. He sighed and threw the cup back over his shoulder, not caring where it landed.

"Never mind."

Ken and Koushirou got there then and slid into the booth next to each other. They noticed the hands intertwined together and smiled.

"I see you two finally got together," Ken said, trying his best to keep his smile genuine.

"Yeah, we did. And I have to thank you for helping me, Ken," Takeru said, hugging him. Ken hugged back shortly and pulled away again, the same smile still on his face.

Takeru, Daisuke, Taichi, and Yamato then began to talk about things that couples talk about and Ken looked down at the tabletop and sighed. 

He felt a hand slide over his and gently run his thumb over the back of his hand and he looked up at Koushirou. Koushirou smiled at him in reassurance, and Ken smiled back, blushing slightly.

"Thank you," he mouthed.

"You're welcome," Koushirou mouthed back.

Koushirou kept his hand resting on Ken's and then turned to listen to the conversation that the other four were having. 

The music beat to their heartbeats and they all danced another song, Taichi with Yamato, Takeru with Daisuke, and Koushirou with Ken, until they found they were tired from the very long night and decided to go home. 

On the way home, Takeru and Daisuke slept in each other's arms against a car window, Ken and Koushirou talked in low voices about this and that, and Taichi and Yamato softly sang along to the classic love song that was playing on the radio. 

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: This isn't the last chapter, even if it seems like it. Oh, no, no, no, there's still more to come. Things are going to get angstier when Daisuke reveals another secret to Takeru, and Ken and Koushirou try to help each other heal, while Taichi and Yamato are stuck talking with each of their younger counterparts, trying to find out what the hell's going on. Review, please! ^-^'


	11. Colorless Sky

A/N: Hey, hey! Uh, it's me. Yeah. Oh, right, the fic. Here's the next chapter. Geesh, I never thought it was going to be this looooong. I hope you guys aren't getting bored. Oh, but it's just getting good! ^-^' Things are gonna be a little angstier, but it's going to be mixed with fluffy parts...so I don't think I'm ever going to have a COMPLETELY angsty chapter. You know, balance things out. Unless you guys prefer otherwise? I don't know, I'm not a mind-reader, you all have to tell me these things. That's what reviewing is for. (Hint-hint.)

Colorless Sky

Takeru laughed as he swirled his straw around in his drink. 

"So, I got detention for weeks after that happened," Daisuke finished, grinning and sipping his drink.

Takeru shook his head, smiling, and lifted his sub sandwich to his mouth to take a bite off the end. "You're crazy."

"Oh, I am?" Daisuke asked.

"Yeah," Takeru laughed.

"So what have you done that landed you in detention? Or has perfect, angelic Takeru never had detention in his life?"

"Of course I have. I mean, not recently, but I have. I can faintly remember having detention before."

"What did big bad Takeru do?" Daisuke teased.

"Shut up! I am not an innocent little angel," Takeru said, smirking. "I actually don't remember much of what I did. No, wait, it's coming back to me. My sixth grade teacher caught me kissing a classmate in the closet."

"No shit?" Daisuke asked, raising an eyebrow. "You were caught making out in a _closet_?"

"It wasn't making out! God, Daisuke, it was the _sixth grade_. Yeah, I was caught kissing in a closet, so what? Doesn't everybody get caught doing that at some point in their lives?"

"No. Was it a girl or boy?"

"Dai, I will again remind you, this was in the sixth grade. I did not think of boys in that way back then."

"So...it was a girl?"

Takeru gave him a look. "Yes. It was a girl, Daisuke. A girl."

"Okay, okay! I was just asking." Daisuke slouched in his chair a bit more and bit on the end of his straw. 

Takeru grinned to himself and leant forward. Daisuke absent-mindedly leant forward also.

"Have you ever done anything...crazy?"

"What do you mean 'crazy'?"

"Like...something really, really unusual or freaky."

"Well...there was this one time."

Takeru clapped his hands once. "Ooh, you've got to tell me about it."

Daisuke sat up straight and leant forward, elbows on the table. "I hope this doesn't freak you out."

  
"Try me," Takeru said, raising an eyebrow and grinning.

Daisuke stared at him awhile, noticing how sexy this made Takeru look, but then shook it off. 

"Okay, well, this happened last year. I had a bird...he was a canary. We kept him in the house, in a birdcage hanging from the ceiling. Sometimes we would leave the cage door open and let the bird fly around the house, and it would go back in it's cage when it got tired-"

"By itself?"

"Yeah, by itself. Anyways, one day we found this stray cat that kept hanging around our house, and my sister wanted to keep it as a pet. We kept it outside, but every once in a while we'd let it inside to roam around the house, as long as we made sure the birdcage door was closed. It was high up enough so that the cat couldn't reach it, and there was nothing around it for the cat to climb, so it was safe. One day it was scratching at the door - the cat, that is - and I decided to let it in so it would shut up. I didn't know that the birdcage had been opened that morning by my mom and my bird hadn't gone back in yet. Well, I was sitting in the living room, watching TV, when all of a sudden, I hear the bird squawking from in that same room, and I look over the side of the couch, and the cat's got feathers sticking out of his mouth. I freaked out and got so pissed off that I ran into the kitchen, where my mom was cutting up tomatoes or something like that, grabbed the butcher knife out of her hand, ran back into the living room, pinned the cat down, and chopped it's head clean off. Then, I reached in to grab the bird-"

Takeru grinned and shuddered slightly.

"-but, sadly, it was already dead. My mom came into the living room and sort of stared at me scared-like, like 'When did my son turn psycho?', you know, and I stared down at what I did and I realized I'd just murdered my cat, and I was covered in its blood and everything. That was really freaky."

Takeru stared at him a while, his face slightly pale, but not looking 'scared-like'. "Yeah, that _is_ really 

freaky."

(A/N: My friend actually did this, exactly how I just told it. What's weird is that instead of looking freaked out afterwards, we all laughed and said, "That is so cool!" **Shrugs**)

Daisuke shrugged and chewed on the end of his straw. Takeru blinked and shook his head, and then took another bite out of his sandwich. 

"So, have _you_ done anything like that?" Daisuke asked Takeru.

Takeru grinned and swallowed his sandwich, setting the rest down. "Actually, yeah. We must have something against cats, because mine involves one, too."

"No shit?" Daisuke asked faintly, chewing on his straw even more.

Takeru didn't know how to answer that, so he went on. "Well, there was this cat that I just hated. I mean, I absolutely _loathed _and _despised_ that stupid cat. I don't even know why. There was just something about it...and I got close to actually murdering it with my bare hands sometimes, but I never did. I just hated it and avoided it when I could. So one day, I saw it dead on the side of the road-"

  
"You sure it was the same one?"

"Yeah, it was. I'm sure. Anyways, it was dead, so I ran up to it and I pointed at it and screamed, 'Hah, you stupid fucking sonofabitch cat! You're dead! You're _dead_, hahaha! Who's the bitch noooow?', and I started doing this little dance around it. Some lady saw me and stared at me like I was insane, but I went on yelling stuff and pointing and laughing and dancing...and I got some sort of sadistic pleasure out of seeing it all bloody and not able to hiss at me anymore. I mean, I actually _felt _the pleasure, you know? That was weird...but damn, am I glad that stupid fucking cat's dead." Takeru ran a hand through his hair.

(A/N: Another one of my friends did that...)

"Damn, Takeru. I've never heard you cuss so much in my life." Daisuke looked him over, and Takeru blushed slightly.

"Sometimes I get carried away," Takeru said, smiling. "You haven't seen me when I'm angry. I don't get angry much, that's why. I can control my temper really well."

"No shit?" Daisuke asked.

"You really like saying that, don't you?" Takeru asked, raising an eyebrow.

Daisuke blinked. "Saying what?"

"'No shit'."

"Oh. Yeah, I do say that a lot, don't I?" Daisuke hung his arm over the back of his seat and looked out the window. He looked around the restaurant once, and then eyed Takeru. "Are we done eating, or what?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm done." 

They got up and cleared their table, dumped their garbage in the trash, and walked out. 

~ ~ ~ ~

"No, no, it's really unnecessary. You don't have to. You can have one, I don't-"

"Ken, relax. I already said I would buy, and no, you don't have to pay me back."

Koushirou pushed down on Ken's shoulders so the younger boy sat back down on his seat, and then moved to sit across from him. 

"We are going to eat ice cream with chocolate fudge on top because it will help us feel better."

"You already feel better."

"Well, I'm helping you to feel better."

"But I'm the one who doesn't really want-"

"Ken, what did I just finish telling you?"

Ken shut his mouth stubbornly, pouting, and Koushirou smiled at him.

"You look so cute like that."

Ken blushed madly and Koushirou decided it was the best time to leave Ken to blush in private and save him from embarrassment, standing and walking to the counter to order for them. Ken watched as the back of Koushirou's head gave orders to the cashier, who nodded and punched things into the cash register.

"I do not," Ken weakly protested, knowing he was a bit late in saying it, and sighed. He rested his chin on his hand, his elbow propped up on the tabletop. 

Koushirou had come up with the idea of going out for ice cream to "cheer us up", and when Ken had said he didn't have money and didn't feel like it, the redhead had merely grabbed his wrist and dragged him down to the ice cream shop, stating simply, "Oh, I insist!"

And now, here he was, exactly where he didn't want to be - out in public. He wanted to go home and fall on his bed and succumb to the sleepiness that had become a part of his everyday personality, but Koushirou had said something about it being unhealthy. Ken tried to explain that he didn't care if it was unhealthy, he just wanted to sleep, but Koushirou insisted on waking him up every time he tried to nod off. It was getting rather annoying. Ken was surprised Koushirou hadn't begun calling him constantly during the night just to ask, "You aren't _sleeping_, are you, Ken?"

"I bet if it was just the opposite and I couldn't sleep at night, he would encourage me to sleep every chance I got," Ken pondered to himself. "Maybe if I tell him I can't sleep anymore..."

He trailed off as Koushirou returned and slapped down two little cups of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate fudge. 

Ken managed a small smile at Koushirou. Koushirou smiled back, looked down at his ice cream, and began eating it. Ken stared down at his own ice cream, then at the spoon, and then back at the ice cream. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to eat it. He suddenly felt guilty for letting Koushirou talk him into buying him ice cream. Koushirou noticed his hesistance.

"It isn't poisoned, Ken-chan."

Ken opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but then stopped, looking up and staring at Koushirou. Koushirou noticed his slip-up and blushed. 

"Uh-"

"HEY, what're you guys doing here?!" 

They looked up as Taichi plopped down on the seat beside Ken, smiling brilliantly at them both. Koushirou and Ken stared at him, both bewildered. Suddenly, Ken looked a little relieved and Koushirou more than a little annoyed. 

"Hi, Taichi," Koushirou greeted him, shoveling ice cream into his mouth, staring down.

"What does it look like we're doing?" Ken asked, smirking.

"Aw, shut up, you little smartass." Taichi ruffled Ken's hair and Ken squawked a protest.

"Taichi, I thought I told you to wait so you could bring your own ice cream - hey, Ken and Koushirou! How are you?" Yamato smiled at them both and set Taichi's ice cream down in front of the hungry brunette. 

"Oh, goodie!" Taichi said, his eyes going wide and shiny, and he dug into his ice cream. 

"Oh, goodie," Koushirou mirrored him, though much more dryly. 

Yamato smirked, knowing that they were probably interrupting something, and sent Koushirou an 'I'm-sorry-I-forgot-his-leash' look. Koushirou saw it and smiled slightly, shrugging. 

"Hey, Taichi, let's go get our own table, okay? I don't want to interrupt anything-" Yamato began.

"What? _Why_? I just sat down!" Taichi whined.

Yamato gave him a pointed look, then glanced towards the other two.

Taichi saw the glance, thought awhile, and then a thought dawned on him. "Oh. _Oh_. Okay, we'll go get another table." He winked at Koushirou and Ken, and they both put their heads in their hands, embarrassed. 

Yamato grabbed Taichi's arm and hauled him off to another table, far away, so that he could be sure Taichi wouldn't try to fling papers at them or anything. 

Ken looked at Koushirou again, smiling slightly, and Koushirou beamed at him. 

Ken looked down to grab his spoon and finally start on his ice cream, but then hesitated when he found there was nothing there. He blinked and glanced up at the table where Yamato and Taichi had moved to, and watched as Yamato hit Tai on the arm, said something to him in an angry tone, and walked back to them, carrying Ken's ice cream. He set it down in front of Ken, apologized, and walked back to the table Taichi had stayed at. Taichi giggled and Yamato said something, laughed slightly, and rubbed the side of his head. 

Ken watched how they seemed to have some kind of perfect couple communication and sighed to himself. He glanced down at his ice cream and kept himself from inspecting it for strange objects or odd-looking things. He began to eat it, slowly, and very aware that a pair of almost-black eyes never once left him.

~ ~ ~ ~  


Takeru and Daisuke walked back to Daisuke's house, talking and laughing, arms linked. They got to Daisuke's house and had a parting kiss, and then Daisuke reached into his pocket for his key and checked to make sure the door was in fact locked. He was surprised when he found it unlocked, and he slowly peeked inside. The house was dark, but he could hear noises from inside. He took one step into the house, keeping half of his body still outside, straining his ears to make out the sounds he could vaguely hear. 

"Daisuke!" he heard his sister yell. "Daisuke, is that you?" 

Daisuke brought his foot back outside quickly, feeling his breathing quicken slightly and his pulse jump. She didn't sound very happy. She was supposed to be out on a date...why was she home early? Did she get stood up again? Daisuke slowly stepped back and closed the door as quietly as he could. 

He looked around to see where Takeru went and saw the blonde walking down the sidewalk towards his own own. 

"Takeru!" he called out, sprinting down the sidewalk. 

The blonde stopped and turned around to watch Daisuke run towards him.

"Daisuke?" he called uncertainly, and he began walking towards him to meet him halfway. 

They soon arrived in front of each other and Daisuke bent over to catch his breath.

"What's wrong?" Takeru asked, a hint of concern evident in his voice. 

"Nothing. Hey, do you want to go by the park and stay there a while? I don't want to go home yet."

"Sure," Takeru replied, concern still written on his face. "Are you sure everything's fine?"

  
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine. I just want to spend more time with you."  


"Oh." Takeru smiled and laced his fingers through Daisuke's. Daisuke managed a true-looking smile and they walked the way to the park in silence. 

When they got there, they found a nice, soft spot on the grass and Daisuke removed his jacket to spread out on the ground and lay on. Takeru only wore a hoodie, so he lay snuggled up close to Daisuke, his arm spread across Daisuke's middle. 

They stared up at the greying sky - it looked like rain would pay a visit sometime later that day. They lay in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and then Daisuke turned to Takeru, opening his mouth. 

He made a small noise and closed his mouth as Takeru turned to look at him. He stared into Takeru's deep blue eyes for awhile, remembered he was going to say something, and opened his mouth again.

"Yes?" Takeru prompted, biting back a laugh.

"I just wanted to tell you something that's been bugging me for a long time," Daisuke said, looking uncertain. "Since I trust you more now and all." 

Takeru turned onto his side to give his boyfriend more attention. "Go ahead."

"Well, first you have to promise me you won't get mad."

"Why would I get mad?" Takeru asked, feeling a little uncertain.

"Just...just promise, okay?" 

"Okay, I promise. I can control my temper easily, remember?"

Daisuke stared at him for awhile longer. Takeru let him stare, figuring he was summoning the courage to say it. It was weird, waiting for his usually very blunt and bold boyfriend to summon the courage to tell him something.

"It's about something that happened last summer." 

Takeru felt a little feeling of familiarity. Hadn't he heard about something else that had happened the previous summer? He decided to be patient and waited for Daisuke to get the story out.

"I went to a party that one of the juniors had...he was in soccer, so I had met him before and talked to him and stuff. Taichi and Yamato went, too, so I wouldn't be totally alone. Sometime during the night, Taichi and Yamato had a fight...I still don't know what it was about, but Taichi left, and Yamato got pissed off because Taichi was how he had gotten to the party and he didn't have a ride anymore. Well, I decided to stick with Yamato during the rest of the party so when my mom came, we could give him a ride, and besides, he didn't really know anyone. Taichi was the one who had been invited, and he had just brought Yamato along. Yamato started drinking a lot because he was so mad at Taichi and he had started going off on one of his depression things. He drank so much that by the end of the night he was so drunk he could hardly stand up straight. He was so totally wasted..."

Daisuke gave a nervous laugh, and then stopped himself, clearing his throat. Takeru was having a growing feeling of nervousness as well, wondering if he really wanted to hear this, but knowing that it was too late now. 

"The music started hurting his head, so we went outside, and we found this little tool shack thing in the backyard, so we went in there. I told him to lie down on this mattress that was in there...I have no idea _what _a mattress was doing in a tool shed...so he did. Pretty soon he started crying and blabbing stuff about Taichi this and Taichi that, so I sat down with him and tried to comfort him, since no one could see us anyways, and he looked so sad and scared that I couldn't help it. After a while he calmed down and he kept his head on my shoulder, and I was running my fingers through his hair without really realizing it...and then he...I mean, we..."

Daisuke stopped, running his hands through his hair. 

"And then we started kissing. Uh...he called me Taichi. I guess he was so drunk I looked like Taichi to him or something. Well...I'm sorry Takeru...I..."

Takeru noticed that Daisuke had tears running down his cheeks. Takeru furrowed his brow and wiped them away. "It's okay, just tell me. I won't be mad."

"I lost my virginity to your brother in that shed, Takeru," Daisuke blurted out.

Takeru stopped and stared at him, his eyes widening slightly. Daisuke's head slowly fell from Takeru's hand and rested on Daisuke's arm. Takeru stared past him now, taking it in. Daisuke had sex with his older brother at a party last summer. His boyfriend had sex with his older brother. His then-fourteen-year-old boyfriend had sex with his seventeen-year-old brother. 

"You what?" the blonde asked softly. 

"I'm sorry," Daisuke whispered, his voice muffled by his sleeve. 

Takeru rolled over and fell onto his back on the grass. The grass seemed harder and it knocked a little wind out of Takeru, but he stared forward at the grey, colorless sky. 

"You were the one that Yamato cheated on Taichi with..." Takeru muttered to himself. "You...he said...oh, but you drank."

Takeru got on his side, smiling slightly at Daisuke. "You said you drank, right? So it wasn't really your-"

"I didn't touch a drop of alcohol last night. Yamato didn't know what the hell had happened the next morning...but I knew every detail...even while I was doing it."

"Oh," Takeru said, deflated a bit, and fell onto his back again.

"Quit doing that, you're gonna hurt yourself," Daisuke said, glancing at him with eyes still filled with tears, but now looking emotionless.

Takeru didn't seem to hear him. "Thanks for telling me," he finally said.

"Well...I couldn't go on _not_ telling you..." Daisuke said to himself, also staring at the bleak sky. "Too damn guilty and all..."

"But this was last summer, so it wasn't cheating on me at all."

"I know, but I still feel guilty."

Takeru blinked to himself. "You were only fourteen."

  
"No, no, don't go giving me that too-young lecture," Daisuke told him. "Yamato and Taichi _both_ gave me that the next day."

"What did Tai say?" 

"He stared at us like he'd just had the energy zapped out of him, fell back on the couch, and asked to hear the whole story. Once we'd told him, he gave Yama a lecture on drinking too much, and me that lecture I just told you about, and then he told me to go home and tell my mom I had slept at his house. My mom yelled at me for not telling her where I was, but I didn't care...imagine how mad she'd be if she knew the _truth_ about where I was and what I was doing."

"So you don't know what Tai told Yama?"

"No, but when I hung out with them after that, they didn't talk to each other for, like, a week. They still stuck together all the time like usual...only this time, they both looked depressed and just sat with each other, looking as if they weren't really _there_."

"Oh."

"Would you quit saying 'oh' all the time? It's getting annoying."

"Sorry."

"So you aren't pissed off?" Daisuke asked in a smallish voice.

Takeru glanced towards him. "Well, I'm not going to cry over it, and there's no point in yelling, since we weren't going out back then or anything. What's past is past, right?"

  
"Right." 

But they both felt the new air of discomfort circling around them, and they both watched the colorless sky as it stared back down at the equally colorless boys. 

~ ~ ~ ~  


A/N: This seemed like the best place to end it, and I'm going to have to go take a bath in a little while, so...anyways, hope you all liked this chapter. Oh, and I know it seemed sort of like Ken doesn't like Koushirou back, but you have to remember that he's still getting over his crush on Takeru, so he's still sort of uncomfortable about getting in a relationship with someone else. Be patient, young grasshoppers. ^-^' Boy, I've been waiting to write that last part for ages. It's been stuck in my head since I first began this fic. The only thing is...now that I've written it, I have no idea what to do now! O.o' It's brainstorming time. **Grabs her thinking hat**


	12. Rain, Rain, Go Away

A/N: I actually wrote a limey part. O.o' That wasn't supposed to happen until later. Of course, it's different here, because it's not really...well, you'll see. Anyways, if you don't want to read lime, which is nondescriptive sex, then skip the first section of this chapter. There's a warning there, also. It isn't even really that bad...well, you can decide for yourself. More angst here. Not much Takesuke at all. Basically, the guys have a rainy day. Um, literally. 

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon, Clue, Pokemon (or the TCG), or Rice Crispies.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

~ ~ (Warning! Skip this next section if you don't want to read lime. Thank you.) ~ ~

There was nothing audible in the room but whispers and murmurs. Fingers stroked delicate pale skin, gently, as if afraid to break the skin. Two figures moved against each other, not really two anymore, but more of a merged figure. The blonde boy under his lover gasped and rested his head in the crook of the tanned neck. Arms wrapped around his middle and pulled him closer, and lips kissed his blonde hair. He opened his blue eyes to stare at a spot in the ceiling. His vision blurred and he had to close his eyes again as another wave of pleasure attacked his senses. 

"Daisuke," the blonde whispered, and then moaned. He clutched at his lover's sweat-covered back, face flushed. 

They moved faster, became more desperate for release. The blonde began to cry out and tossed his head back, hair falling over the pillow and brushing over it. Tanned fingers ran through the golden locks, gripping them in fists. 

Finally, the moment arrived, and they both cried out and the spiky-haired boy collapsed onto his blonde lover. They remained like this for a while, and then, next to his sensitive ear, he heard his lover whisper...

"Yamato..."

The blue eyes shot open. 

Takeru shot up in bed, sweating and gasping. He gripped the bedcovers and shut his eyes hard, trying to steady his harsh breathing. He slowly opened his eyes and focused his vision on the damp spot on the sheets in between his knees. He shut his eyes again and let himself fall back onto his bed, covering his eyes with his hands. 

"Shit," he cursed under his breath. He lay like that a while, almost afraid to remove his hands from his eyes, afraid to see his dream-boyfriend staring down at him, calling him his brother's name. 

"We weren't going out. It wasn't cheating," the blonde repeated to himself, muffled by his hands. 

He slowly rolled over to lay on his side, drawing his knees upwards towards himself. 

"But he was sober," he whispered, as if arguing with himself. 

He slowly uncurled and sat up, breathing properly now, and cringed as a vaguely familiar scent reached his nostrils. 

"Damnit," he whispered as he grabbed his dirty sheets and yanked them off of the bed. He shoved them onto the floor and then moved to go to his dresser to find something clean to change into.

~ ~ ~ ~

Daisuke stared out the window, chin resting in his hand, eyes narrowed. He drummed his fingers on his knee. The TV droned on and on about things that had driven him to completely turn his back on the screen and face the window that shone no light into his room. There was no light to shine in.

Rain beat mercilessly against the windowpane. Daisuke sighed loudly as he watched lightning flash, and then heard thunder boom and make the house's walls seem to vibrate. 

"Wonderful time for a storm. It's the last day to go out and have fun and not worry about going to school. Monday is tomorrow. I don't want to even _think_ about being cooped up anywhere today. But no, there _had_ to be a thunderstorm."

Just then, the light went out in his room and the TV shut off. 

"Yeah, me and my big mouth. Stupid thunderstorms." He leant back to lay on his bed, forgetting he was more or less on the edge already, and got a big shock when he met nothing but air and his head banged hard against the edge of the table the TV was sitting on.

~ ~ ~ ~

Yamato rested his head on his arm as he sighed and stared at the black TV screen. He listened to the sound of his father knocking something over and cursing loudly as he tried to pick it up again. He heard even more cursing when his father found that he had broken something that was glass and was now trying to dislodge a piece of glass from his hand. Yamato laid down on the couch and closed his eyes. He blocked out the noise of the thunder and his father's angry voice and turned to thoughts of a beautiful brunette lying next to him. Yamato hugged a pillow to make up for lack of said brunette to hug. 

~ ~ ~ ~

"Rain, rain, go away! Come again another day! Rain, rain-"

  
"Shut _up_, Taichi!"

"Okay, geez! You don't have to get all _sore_ on me or anything-"

"It's your move, Ken."

Ken stopped yelling at Taichi long enough to grab the dice from the board and shake them in his cupped hands. Koushirou had come over earlier just to visit, and Taichi had come over because...actually, he had no idea whatsoever _what_ Taichi was doing there, but they had both arrived a moment before it had started pouring, and now were playing a board game by candlelight, since the lights had gone out around fifteen minutes before. 

They were playing Clue, which Koushirou hadn't known how to play, so they'd just handed him the instructions and let him read them while they were setting the game up, and by the time they were ready, he had memorized the entire instruction booklet.

"I guess-"

"You guess?"

"Uh...yeah."

"You don't _guess_ until the end of the game. Now, we're just _suggesting_. See, that's how the game is played."

"Okay, I _suggest_ that it was Mrs. White with a revolver in the kitchen."

Koushirou slid Taichi a card, face-down. Taichi grabbed it and slid it off the table and onto his lap, glanced at it, and then handed it back to Koushirou under the table. He grabbed his pen to check a revolver off of his list, but then blinked. There was already a check there.

"Hey, you already showed me that one."

Koushirou and Ken both sighed. 

"Pay attention to the game, Tai."

"I am! I just get distracted."

"I forfeit," Ken said, throwing his cards onto the table and standing up. Koushirou and Taichi stared up at him, both raising an eyebrow.

Ken turned away from them and walked to the kitchen to get a snack from a cupboard. Koushirou and Taichi turned to each other, knowing the universal rule that, if one friend leaves the game, then the game usually stops because the other friends realize _they_ were getting bored, also. They threw their cards onto the table and stood to follow Ken into the kitchen.

Ken threw them Rice Crispies treats and they caught them and began opening them. Ken grabbed his own and shut the cupboard, leaning against it and opening the shiny blue package. 

"What do you guys want to do now?" Ken asked. 

Koushirou and Taichi shrugged and looked at the floor, thoughtful expressions gracing their features. Suddenly Ken got an idea and he slowly looked up at them, smiling. 

"You know what I haven't done in a long time?"

~ ~ ~ ~  


"You're dead."

Taichi groaned, mouth full of Rice Crispies, and slowly moved his cards to the "Discard pile" in the corner of the playmat. He stared down at them and then slowly moved one of the cards on his "bench" up to the "active" position. 

"Bad move," Ken warned him. 

Taichi stared down at the playmat, trying to figure out what he meant. He finally noticed that the Pokemon he had moved up was a fire type, and Ken was using a water type, and he groaned again and leant his head back on his chair.

Ken smirked and told him to hurry up, since it was his turn, still. Koushirou watched in mild interest. He hadn't gotten swept away with the Pokemon Trading Card Game craze, but he had watched his friends play a couple of times, and so knew the rules and understood what things meant when they happened. 

"I wonder what Yama's doing right now," Taichi said to himself, sighing, and moving damage counters to his card when Ken attacked.

"Probably thinking of you," Koushirou answered, smirking.

"Probably," Taichi agreed, looking wistful. Ken and Koushirou exchanged looks and rolled their eyes. 

Taichi let his mind wander to daydreams, and stared at the ceiling for awhile while it was Ken's turn. He smiled as he thought of his beautiful boyfriend. He had such amazing eyes, such silky hair, and such a sexy purr. Taichi _loved_ Yamato's purr. He almost drooled but remembered he wasn't alone and casually moved a hand across his mouth, wiping it. 

"Taichi, you're dead."

"Damn it!"

~ ~ ~ ~  


The second that the rain dried up and the sun began to break through the clouds for the first time in nearly ten hours, doors were thrown open and blurs dashed along sidewalks, eager to get out and be somewhere else. 

Ken chased Taichi and Koushirou out, who had made a mess of his kitchen when trying to aid him in making chocolate milk - only Taichi could make a mess of a kitchen making something as simple as chocolate milk - and Taichi automatically sprinted to Yamato's house. He was surprised when he ran into Takeru on Yamato's porch, and even more surprised when Yamato's father came to the door to inform the boys that Yamato had left already to walk to the store to get eggs, milk, and bread. 

Ken found himself on Daisuke's porch, and sighed when he was told that Daisuke was out visiting Takeru, and Daisuke himself kicked a rock down the sidewalk in annoyance when he found that his boyfriend was out visiting his brother. He lightened a bit when he saw Ken walking down the sidewalk towards him, waving at him. 

Ken raised a questioning eyebrow when he saw Daisuke had his hand over a bump on his head and was gingerly rubbing it through his spiky-hair, but decided it was best not to ask.

Koushirou went home and went into his room, then nearly had a heart attack when someone that he hadn't been expecting at all jumped out at him from behind his bedroom door, laughing. Koushirou happily hugged Jyou and welcomed him back home after not seeing him for weeks. 

Koushirou and Jyou decided to take Sora and Mimi out to dinner, since it had been a while since the four friends had all gone out together, and they set out to do just that before it could get too dark out. 

~ ~ ~ ~

Takeru and Taichi walked down the road to the grocery store, both sighing, one from exhaustion and lack of sleep and the other from lovesickness. 

"I miss Yamato," Taichi whined. 

Takeru seemed to not hear him, staring hard at the cement. 

Taichi turned to look over his younger friend, and noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

"You sleep much?"

"Huh?"

Takeru blinked and looked at Taichi, eyes slightly widened. 

"You okay, Mini-Matty?"

"I guess."

Taichi raised his eyebrows when Takeru didn't tell him to not call him the nickname he hated. There must have been something wrong with him. Taichi decided not to ask him about it and leave it to his older brother. He guessed, correctly, that was why Takeru was going to see Yamato in the first place.

They reached the grocery store and went in, looking around for Yamato. Or, at least Taichi was, while Takeru stared at the floor as he walked. Taichi yanked him to the side once to avoid letting his friend crash into an old lady with a slow-moving shopping cart. 

"Dude, what is wrong with you?" Taichi asked him.

Takeru looked up. "Huh?"

"Huh? Huh? I said, what's wrong-"

"Ack!"

Takeru bumped into someone and nearly sent them crashing into the stacked pyramid of tomato sauce cans. Takeru apologized and bowed, and then realized he recognized the shoes and jeans of the person standing in front of him. He looked up at Yamato.

"Oh, hi Yama."

Yamato gave him an impatient stare. "You know, you could have just greeted me like that, instead of nearly knocking me over."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

Yamato gave him a closer look. "Takeru, what's wrong? Why do you look so tired? Did you sleep at all last night? Did the thunder keep you up?"

Takeru wondered which question to answer first. He tried to remember the first one, and found he couldn't, then he went back to the last one, but found he'd forgotten it. In the middle of trying to remember that one, he forgot the others, and he found himself blinking and staring blankly at his brother. 

"Can you ask me all that again?"

Yamato figured that with the long pause in between and the forgetting of his questions, something _had_ to be wrong with his usually bright, cheery, and quick-witted younger brother. He absent-mindedly felt Takeru's forehead with the back of his hand.

"Are you sick?" He decided to ask one question at a time.

"No. Maybe. I feel sort of sick." 

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Yamato moved his hand to Takeru's left cheek.

"Not really. The storm kept me up," Takeru said. It was sort of the truth, anyways. 

"Oh, okay," Yamato said, giving him an odd look, but deciding to leave it at that. 

Taichi waited until there was a pause of silence, figured that the brother-to-brother questioning was over, and hugged Yamato's arm.

"I missed you," he cooed, stroking Yamato's hair with one hand.

Yamato blushed and smiled. "Missed you too."

"Do you have your groceries done yet?" Takeru asked, looking at the barely-filled shopping cart.

"Just about. We only needed a few things. I still need to get the milk and cereal, though. We ran out."

Taichi dragged Yamato along to the cereal aisle, talking away, and Yamato gave the occasional nod. He stopped walking, though, when he noticed that they had left Takeru behind.

He turned and called out to Takeru, who stopped staring at the floor, turned in the direction of Yamato's voice, and began making his way towards them, dragging his feet on the floor. 

When he got to where Taichi and Yamato stood, Yamato, by a pang of maternal instinct, linked his arm through Takeru's, so he wouldn't lose him there in the grocery store.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

A/N: Takeru's goooooone...sigh. I didn't want him to be the one that brought the angst into the fic. It was supposed to be...gah. Never mind. Fine, I'll do it his way. **Pouts** Damn Takeru for being so much like me. Or the other way around. I don't know. Um...I digress. Next chapter, we'll have Daisuke and Ken out buddy-buddying, Takeru trying to get answers from his older brother about..._that_ night, and...whatever else I throw into the chapter off the top of my head. Anyways, please review. If you don't, I'll assume no one's read this chapter yet, and I won't start on the next. (Or won't post the next. Whatever.) 


	13. A Little Ray Breaking Through

A/N: I'll just say here that there's a good deal more fluff in this chapter than the last few. With the exception of Ken, who just doesn't want to let me coax him into blissful fluffiness just yet. I'll get him later...

Ken: Is this the part where I gulp in fear?

...Anyways, go on and read. I know you don't really pay attention to these things anyway.

A Little Ray Breaking Through

Daisuke and Ken wandered down the main street, eyeing store windows and not moving out of the way for people, making them have to jump to the side to avoid being trampled or crashing into the two bored teenage boys. 

"I wish there was a circus in town or something," Daisuke said, yawning and scratching his chin.

"Yeah," Ken said, kicking at a rock that was in his path.

Daisuke looked over at him, smiled slightly, and reached into his pocket. He brought out the earphones of his CD player and offered one to Ken. Ken gladly took it and slipped it in his ear. Daisuke pulled his CD player out of his pocket enough to press the Play button, and Adema's "Speculum" filled their heads. Ken felt a little tinge of sadness in his heart as he listened to the lyrics.

'_Reminds me of Osamu,_' he thought a little sadly. 

"Hey, Ken," Daisuke said a little loudly, to make sure the other boy would hear him.

"Yeah?" 

"How come you've been sorta depressed lately?"

Ken cringed slightly. He hated it when people asked him about it. He got it all the time. "Not enough sleep," he said truthfully.

"Why not? You just can't?"

"Right."

"That's such a load of crap, Ken."

Ken looked up, faintly surprised, not at the use of language, but at the tone of voice Daisuke had said it in. He had sounded like Ken had suddenly made him very angry.

"I _can't_ sleep," Ken protested.

"You make yourself stay awake, Ken. You don't let yourself sleep, because you're afraid to dream of him. If you don't let yourself dream what you dream, then you won't get over it. You know that. Just let it go."

Ken stared at his friend again. He had an odd feeling that his mind had turned into an open book that Daisuke could recite aloud. 

Daisuke turned to smile at him. "Believe me, Ken. I had to get over my long-time crush on Kari about two years ago. Trying to keep from thinking about him will do you no good. Let your mind think what it wants to think, let yourself dream what you want to dream, and you'll get over it. The way you're carrying on, it's like you're stuck on replay. No progress whatsoever."

"That's deep, Dai."

"What? Am I not capable of being deep like that?" Daisuke raised an eyebrow and grinned.

Ken blushed slightly. "I didn't mean it like that! I mean...I meant-"

"Hey, it's okay. I'm used to it."

Ken stopped stuttering and shut up, staring forward. He thought over what Daisuke had told him. He sighed to himself, knowing his friend was right. He had to just stop trying to control everything, and just let it all go. He had to let the feelings for Takeru flow out of him on its own time.

"Thanks, Daisuke," Ken said, smiling gratefully.

"Hey, no problem. Anytime, Kenny-boy." 

After a while, Daisuke stopped walking. He had a sudden urge to go and find Takeru and see him. He knew that Takeru was with his older brother, and he was always slightly afraid to barge in on their brother-to-brother time, but he couldn't understand why he suddenly needed to see him so badly.

"Hey, Ken, I don't think we're going to find anything to do. Let's walk back."

Ken stopped and turned around. "Okay."

~ ~ ~ ~

Takeru went to Yamato's house, carrying two shopping bags, following Taichi's bushy hair through the crowd. They got inside and set the groceries on the counter, carefully taking the food out of their respective bags and throwing the bags in the trash. Once they had put everything in its place, Takeru asked to talk to Yamato in his room, so, of course, Taichi followed close behind. 

They gathered on Yamato's bed, Taichi laying on his stomach, Yamato sitting back with his elbows propping him up, and Takeru sitting with his lower legs crossed. 

"What did you want to talk about, little bro?" Yamato asked, grabbing a pillow to get comfortable with. 

"About Daisuke," Takeru said, shifting on the bed. 

"What about him?"

"He told me about last summer," Takeru said, poking at the bed covers. 

Yamato stopped moving the pillow around and Taichi looked up from where he lay to stare at Takeru. Yamato slowly began adjusting the pillow again, staring at it.

"Oh, he did, did he?"

Takeru ignored the question. "I want you to tell me everything that happened, in your own words. Tell me the truth."

"The truth is Taichi and I got in a fight, he left, I got drunk, and when I woke up, Daisuke was lying beside me and I was on a dirty, old mattress and my head hurt like hell." Yamato shrugged. "That's all I know of the truth."

Takeru sighed and put his head in his hand. "I can't stop thinking about it. I can't help but be a little untrusting now...is that bad?"

Yamato smiled slightly and reached out to grab Takeru's arm and pull his hand down, looking Takeru in the eyes. 

"So you guys had your first little argument thing. Hardly even an argument, actually. Big deal. Congratulations, you're a normal couple."

Takeru sighed and shrugged slightly. "I know, it's perfectly fine to have an argument now and then, but...it just bothered me. If I can't trust him..."

"Then why go out with him?" Yamato finished.

"Exactly."

"Because you like him."

Takeru looked up at his brother. Yamato smiled at him and tucked his hair behind his ear. 

"You don't have to trust him right off the bat. It takes time to develop trust in a person, especially one that is as close to you as Daisuke is, because if he hurt you, it would hurt you more than if someone else did."

"I didn't talk much to Yama for a week after what happened last summer, even though I knew Yamato really didn't even know what happened. I lost a little trust in him. But you know what?" Taichi asked.

"What?"

"After that week, we had a long talk about it, we hugged, we cried, we kissed, and that night I realized I had gained more trust in him than ever before."

Taichi smiled as he looked at Yamato, and Yamato smiled back. Takeru never saw Yamato smile special like that except if it was at Tai. Watching the two stare into each other's eyes for a while longer, Takeru realized something. Yamato's and Taichi's relationship was very rocky in the beginning, but now, it was a bit hard to miss the love that was in their eyes when they looked at each other and smiled. Sometimes you have to go through a very bad time to get to an extremely good time. Takeru thought about this, and then smiled to himself. 

"You're absolutely right," he said. Yamato and Taichi stopped grinning stupidly at each other long enough to give Takeru love-dazed glances.

"What?"

"I said you're right. We are going to get through this, and we are going to come out closer than before." 

"That's the spirit!" Taichi clapped Takeru on the back, making the younger boy jerk forward and clutch his chest, coughing. 

Just then, the door was opened, and Daisuke stood there uncertainly, a slightly guilty look on his face. 

"I heard Takeru was here, so I came over. Sorry for not phoning or anything, Yamato."

"It's okay," Yamato answered, and then grinned at Takeru. 

Takeru grinned back and hopped off the bed. He walked up to Daisuke, hands on his hips, smiling. 

"Where have you been?" he asked.

Daisuke lowered his gaze to the floor. "I stopped by your house, but you had already come over here...so..."

Takeru lifted his hands to cup Daisuke's face. Daisuke looked up at him, his gaze clouded by mild confusion. Takeru leant forward, eyes closed, and gently kissed Daisuke. Daisuke raised his eyebrows in surprise and leant into Takeru, bringing his arms up to circle the blonde's waist. Takeru flicked Daisuke's upper lip with his tongue and Daisuke allowed the boy's tongue entrance. Takeru gently ran his tongue over Daisuke's and gently pulled back to stare into Daisuke's eyes. Daisuke was breathing a little faster and stared at him in surprise.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

Takeru laughed and hugged Daisuke tightly, head resting on his boyfriend's chest. Daisuke suddenly smiled widely and hugged back, feeling his heart beat with happiness. Daisuke looked over at Taichi and Yamato, who were grinning at the younger couple. Daisuke grinned back and gently pressed his face into Takeru's soft hair. He ran his fingers through his boyfriend's hair and gently trailed them down his back, and then Takeru stepped back, smiling up at him. 

"I'm going to go home now," Takeru said, still facing Daisuke, but addressing his brother.

"Okay," Yamato said, and then the two younger boys closed his bedroom door and began to walk out of the house.

Yamato and Taichi grinned at each other.

"A job well done, Agent Yamato," Taichi said, lifting his hand.

Yamato laughed and high-fived him. "I agree, Agent Taichi. I agree."

Taichi smirked and crawled closer to Yamato so he could rest his chin on Yamato's shoulder.

"Well, we're all alone. Whatever shall we do now."

"Watch TV?" Yamato suggested, turning the TV on and grabbing the remote. Taichi growled slightly and tackled Yamato back onto the bed, sending the pillow flying off and onto the floor.

"I don't think so!"

"Ack, Tai! That's going to leave a mark!" Yamato whined as Tai gently bit his neck.

"Enjoy it, kid, or I'll climb off and go home and leave you here all hot and bothered."

Just then Yamato purred and Taichi forgot all about his threat, yanking the bed covers over the both of them, shielding them from view.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Ken stared out of his window at the streets below. "Foolish Games" by Jewel was playing on the CD player in a corner of his room. He watched as people walked, clutching their jackets around themselves, some laughing and smiling, and some lone walkers, staring at the sidewalk in front of them, not smiling. 

He sighed and moved to his bed, laying down and hugging the bedsheets around himself. He closed his eye, forcing a tear to slide over the bridge of his nose and drip onto the blankets. 

Just then, the phone rang. Ken wiped his eyes and slowly stood, walking to the phone in his room. He dropped to his knees beside the phone, on the floor, and slowly picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ken," greeted a voice that was becoming familiar to him. He smiled to himself and sat up against the edge of his bed.

"Hey, Koushirou," he said softly.

"Just wanted to make you smile. Unless you really don't want to talk, or don't want to hear my voice, or you're busy or something, then you might not smile...but I figured it was worth a try. So, did I make you smile?"

"Yeah, you did." Ken laughed a little and rubbed his forehead.

"So, you want to talk?" Koushirou asked gently.

Ken cradled the phone against his head as he leant back against the soft bedsheets. 

"Sure, let's talk."

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Heh...I couldn't stand writing angst anymore. It just didn't fit with this fic. Now I guess we're back to Fluff City. O.o' Well, that is, until my mind comes up with some new obstacle for them. And, of course, there is the fact that Ken has yet to heal. That'll be gradual, but it'll be nicer for him day by day. 


	14. Halloween Moon

A/N: I'm going to a costume party/concert tonight! Yay! I'm going to be Wednesday from the Addams Family. (Everyone says I look just like her with the costume on...is that good or bad?) So here's the first half of the Halloween party. (No, this chapter doesn't cover all of it.) Sorry I took a...er...break from this fic, but I'm back, so rejoice! Rejoice? Eh, Choir has influenced my vocabulary again.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Tick or Arthur. I don't own Gir or Invader Zim. I don't own Alka Seltzer. Uh...just don't ask.

Halloween Moon

"I can't find my ears! Has anyone seen my ears?"

Daisuke grabbed clothes and tossed them back over his shoulder, sorting through the stuff in his closet. His mother poked her head into the room.

"You screamed?"

"Yeah. I can't find my ears."

"I believe they're located on your head, which is above your shoulders, in case that helps-"

"No, _Mom_. The ears to my costume."

"Oh, yes, your costume. Eh..." she trailed off, looking over his costume. "Isn't that what you wore the past two Halloweens? Who is the costume of, again? Oscar, was it?"

"Gee, that's really observant of you. And his name is Arthur, mom, the rabbit guy from that show The Tick." He popped out of the closet. His mother looked him over and raised her eyebrow. 

"I thought it got stained after what happened with the ketchup."

Daisuke narrowed his eyes. "Don't remind me about that..."

The doorbell rang and he raced to answer it. He loved to give out candies to the little trick-or-treaters, especially because he could sneak a few into his pocket while he was over there. He opened the door and grabbed a handful of candies.

"Trick-or-treat!"

Daisuke took one look at the boy standing before him and doubled over in laughter. Before him stood what could only be described as...a stuffed olive.

"You're dressed as-as-as an _olive_!"

"I'm aware of that."

Daisuke stood up again, wiping his eyes and still laughing. He looked up and his mouth dropped open. "And you've even dyed your hair bright red to look like the pimento!" 

Takeru tried to step into the apartment, having to hold his costume down at the sides and walk in sideways. Once inside, he let go, and his costume became a huge round green thing around his thin body again. 

"Now that you're here, you can help me find my ears." 

Takeru gave his boyfriend an odd look.

"The ears to my costume."

"Oh."

Takeru shrugged and followed Daisuke through the house as best as he could without getting stuck anywhere. 

"I can't believe you're wearing that costume for the third year in a row."

"Hey, my grandma made it for me."

"Didn't you get ketchup all over it after last year?"

Daisuke grumbled to himself something about "stupid ketchup" and then shouted, "Aha!" He grabbed his bunny rabbit ears out from under his bed and slipped them onto his head. 

"Ready," he said enthusiastically.

"You look stupid."

"I wouldn't talk if I were you, olive boy."

~ ~ ~ ~  


"Welcome to the party!" Taichi shrieked, leading them into the house. Takeru and Daisuke were shoved into the living room and they stared around at their costumed friends. 

Everyone stared at Takeru's costume. 

"You're an olive...that _is_ what it is, isn't it?" Yamato asked uncertainly.

"Yes, it is."

"Uh...why?"

"Because I didn't want to have the same costume as anyone else. I figured, this costume is unique, nobody will think of being an olive. Why not?"

"It was just an excuse to get your mom to let you dye your hair red, wasn't it?" Ken asked, smirking.

"Why, Ken, I'd do no such thing," Takeru said in a voice that said differently.

"And you're bunny-boy again. Where's the ketchup, Daisuke?" Yamato burst out laughing and high-fived Taichi, and Daisuke glared death at him.

"Does _everyone _remember the ketchup thing?"

The previous year, Daisuke had drank a little too much spiked punch (courtesy of the Yagami-Ishida Get Plastered Foundation), and had been dared by Ken (who was in a very devious mood that Halloween night) to chug ketchup. He'd promptly thrown up all the ketchup and punch down the front of his costume. It had taken tons of washing to get the stain off of his white costume.

"I won't be drinking so much punch tonight," Daisuke muttered. 

Takeru dipped a cup into the punch and sipped it, then smiled, recognizing the taste. "Ah, good idea, Dais."

Takeru took some time to check out what everyone was wearing. 

Yamato was dressed as what could best be described as a "gothic scarecrow." His hair had been made stringy with gel, giving it a straw-like appearance, sticking out under a straw hat. He had dark circles under his eyes, a frightening lopsided grin, and a brown shirt and brown pants with more orange, yellow, or red patches than he could count. What made it "gothic" was the black streaks in his hair, the spiked dog collar around his neck, and the cuffs on his wrists. Strangely enough, it only made the costume even cooler. 

Ken was dressed as Gir from Invader Zim (the dog costume, not the robot). He didn't have the head of the costume on at the moment, but Takeru saw it lying on the couch. 

Taichi was dressed, unoriginally, like the Grim Reaper. His scythe was lying propped against the wall. It was at least more than the previous year, when he had dressed as a soccer player, merely wearing his uniform. Yamato had hit him over the head with a candy bag when he'd seen that he hadn't really dressed up. Yamato had been a playboy bunny, though, so Taichi had hit him back with his own bag of candy, then hit him again when he found he'd broken a lollipop.

Sora had on a cat suit, with cat ears and a tail attached to the back. She'd painted her face with black whiskers and a black nose. She'd even grown her nails long and painted them black to resemble cat claws. 

Mimi wore a long purple and black dress with long sleeves that overlapped her fingers. She claimed she was a witch, though it looked more like a vampiress's dress. Takeru guessed she could be both. 

Now Koushirou - there was one costume that Takeru couldn't figure out. He looked like he couldn't decide whether he wanted to be a Monarch butterfly or a Bengal tiger...he had wings, sure, but what was with the tiger ears and tail? Did butterflies normally have tails? Takeru tried to think back to the last time he'd seen one. Maybe they'd evolved lately.

Koushirou greeted them with a Hi! and went to sit next to the green dog on the couch. 

Takeru and Daisuke exchanged looks, shrugged, and walked towards where the CDs were playing. 

"Don't touch the machinery, Daisuke!" they heard Koushirou yell at them.

Daisuke held his hands up. "Okay, okay! Geez, no one trusts me anymore." He knew that if he so much as poked at any of the machinery Koushirou used to DJ, which was set up in a corner of the room, playing music loudly, Koushirou would gladly pour chemical burner down his throat.

"There may be a reason for that," Takeru said, smirking.

Daisuke gave him a look. "I'm not _that_ bad."

"Right."

Just then Jyou and Iori burst into the house, Jyou with egg sliding down his arm. 

"We got egged," he said, laughing. 

Iori didn't look as happy. He had eggshell in his hair.

"It was a drive-by," Jyou went on.

Sora and Mimi rushed forth with towels, grabbed them, and dragged them into the kitchen to wash them off. 

Taichi and Yamato followed them in to make fun of their friends and ask them who egged them and how and where and when. Daisuke looked around the party and felt something was not quite right. He furrowed his brow and took a sip of his water - Taichi had let him take a bottle of water out of the fridge to drink, so he didn't have to drink the alcohol in the punch. 

Suddenly Daisuke realized what was wrong. They were in Taichi's house. Where was Kari?

~ ~ ~ ~

"And then all of a sudden I got smacked with this egg, and it was slimy and yucky and I think I'm allergic to it..."

"You are not allergic to eggs."

"How do you know?"

"Remember that one time in the digital world when we were talking about how we liked our eggs cooked? You said you liked them plain."

"Oh. Yeah."

Sora smiled and pulled the towel away, finished with cleaning the gunk off of Jyou's arm and shoulder. 

"Done."

"It still smells."

"Well, ask Taichi if he has any cologne lying around or something."

Jyou sighed and grumbled as he got up to find Taichi. Somewhere in the middle of explaining the egging, the brunette had grabbed Yamato and wandered off back to the party. He had such a short attention span.

Sora cleaned Iori off as she watched her bluenette friend go. She smiled. It was nice to have him visiting on Halloween. 

Jyou finally found Taichi and shouted to him over the music about his situation. Taichi led him to the bathroom, where he began to search for cologne. Taichi had brought nearly everything out from under the sink, without luck, before smacking his forehead and saying he'd left it in his gym locker. Jyou sighed and Taichi suggested he ask Kari for perfume. 

"Where is Kari?"

"Hiding in her room."

"From who?" Jyou asked, confused.

"From everybody," Taichi replied, smiled slightly, and walked away. Jyou stared after him, confused, and then made his way to Kari's room.

~ ~ ~ ~

"I'm so going to kill you!" Mimi chased Koushirou around the room. Ken laughed in between asking Mimi to please not kill him, and Koushirou screamed as he tripped over a chair leg and fell onto the floor. Mimi pounced on him and pulled on his hair and Koushirou winced and tried to get his hair free from her hands.

"You're going to mess up my wings! And careful with the ears!"

"Well, you've messed up my dress, so it would be fair!"

"I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going. It's just a small stain - it should come out in the wash, anyways. I don't see why you're so worked up about it."

"This was an expensive dress, Koushirou!"

"You can get off him now," Ken told her, slightly annoyed.

Mimi leapt up and stormed off to get some more punch, and Ken helped Koushirou up.

"I'm glad she didn't kill you," Ken told the older boy.

Koushirou grinned. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. She's scary."

"Yes, she is, isn't she? Only when she's angry."

They plopped down together onto the couch. Ken grabbed a pillow and hugged it, resting his chin on it. Koushirou smiled at him.

"You look super cute in that costume, Ken."

"Thanks. You look...uh...Koushirou, what are you supposed to be?"

"I don't know. I wanted to wear orange and black, so I found as many orange-and-black things I could in a costume store and threw them together."

"Oh. Okay. It looks cool. Very...original. It goes with your hair."

"Thanks!" Koushirou grinned and Ken smiled gently, blushing slightly.

Suddenly the music changed from a dance song to "Living Dead Girl" by Rob Zombie, also known as the "official song to strip by", which Daisuke had so wonderfully named it. Koushirou's head snapped to the side to look at his machines set up in the corner and his vision went slightly red when he saw Daisuke was standing there, smiling. He realized what he was smiling at and looked up at the blonde boy dancing on the table. 

Ken stared up at Takeru, who was dancing on a table not quite in front of him, but close enough to give Ken a nice view of Takeru's lean, smooth stomach when he raised his arms above his head. The olive suit was discarded on the floor, and he was dressed in his normal baggy jeans and green long-sleeved shirt. Takeru continued to dance, slowly, sensually, and totally aimed towards the grinning redhead in the corner. Ken felt his head grow a bit light and he felt a deep, dark emotion swirling inside of him as he watched Takeru slowly point his finger at Daisuke and then trail down the blonde's chest. 

The only one that noticed him stand and leave, practically running, was the confused Tiger-butterfly staring after him from his seat on the couch.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Let's go pour Alka Seltzer into a bird and watch it explode."

"Okay. Where are we going to find a bird, though?"

"I thought that was obvious. We'll just have to build a bird trap!"

"Oh, right."

Yamato followed Taichi outside.

~ ~ ~ ~  


Jyou stood in front of the door. He felt like he was treading enemy lines. He half-expected a flashing red light to pop out of the ceiling and an automated voice to yell "Danger! Danger!", but he always did get carried away with things. 

He hadn't been around to watch things happen the past year, but he'd heard from his friends about the whole Kari-Miyako ordeal, and wondered if maybe smelling like egg for the remainder of the party was really such a horrible thing. 

Just then, the door opened, and Kari poked her head out slowly, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Yes?"

"How'd you know I was out here?"

He expected her to say, "You were disturbing my aura", or something like that, but instead she simply said, "I heard your footsteps stop in front of my door and wondered why you never knocked."

"Oh. I smell like eggs and Taichi told me to ask you if you have any perfume."

She laughed and smiled slightly, then opened her door further. "Come on in."

Jyou stepped into her room and she closed the door behind him and walked to her dresser. He took a look around her room. It hadn't changed since the last time he'd been there. At least he knew she hadn't really changed from before she started giving the others trouble. 

"Why are you hiding in here? You do know there's a party going on outside your door, right?"

She smiled to herself and pulled her perfume from out of a drawer, shutting it and walking back towards him.

"_I_," she said, handing it to him, "am not invited. Well, at least they wouldn't want me there."

"Why not? What happened?"

"Didn't they tell you?"

"Sort of, but I don't really know the details. You still seem nice."

She smiled slightly again and sat on her bed, patting the spot beside her. He sat next to her and turned towards her to listen as he sprayed perfume onto himself.

"You know I was in love with Takeru, right?"

He hesitated in his actions and set the perfume down on the light blue and white bedsheets. 

"I suspected you did," he replied, "but I wasn't sure."

She nodded slowly, staring down at her hands. "You know he's gay?"

"Yes. He told me a while back."

"I was the first person he told, back when we were best friends."

Jyou cringed slightly. "Oh. That must have been painful for you to hear."

Hikari smiled slightly and looked away. "When he told me he had something important to tell me, I honestly thought he was going to tell me he loved me back. I didn't expect for him to tell me he was gay and in love with the boy that was supposed to be his rival for my affections. After he told me, I stared at him for a while until it sunk in, and then, I did something that probably started this whole mess...I blew up at him. I yelled at him things like, 'How could you be _gay_?' and 'No, that is so wrong!' I meant that it was wrong that he was supposed to love me, the way I'd thought all along it was supposed to be. I couldn't care less if he were gay and I didn't have feelings for him, but for the guy I was in love with, it had to be wrong in my head. He told his brother about my reaction, and Yamato told my brother, and _that's_ when they started hating me."

"They don't _hate_ you..."

"Yes, they do."

Jyou rubbed her shoulder and smiled. "I don't hate you."

She smiled back slightly and looked down at the floor. "Thanks, Jyou."

He looked around her room for awhile, rubbing her arm, letting her lean her head on his shoulder, and then cleared his throat.

"You want to go out to the party with me?"

Kari pulled away from him, looking slightly scared. She shook her head but he took her hands in his and pulled her to her feet.

"It's going to be _fine_, don't worry. I'll take care of you," he assured her.

She sighed and lowered her head, then said in a low voice, "Okay, I'll go. I really miss you guys."

Jyou smiled and gently pulled her to the door and pulled it open, leading her out into the music-filled hall. They walked back to the party, hand-in-hand after a hard separation they were both glad might finally end that night.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: That's it, I've got to post it. I've been writing this for three days and I need to get _some_thing posted or I'll go nuts. So I'm cutting the Halloween party into two chapters...sorry. I really, really felt the need to wrap up the Kari-Miyako insaneness in this fic. I had Kari's side of the story in my head for so long and I couldn't read any more reviews asking me to give Kari what she's got coming to her. I was the only one that knew it wasn't really her fault. -_-' Sorry to those of you who wanted Daisuke to kick Kari's ass or something, that's not going to happen. (He might get mad at her or something but things aren't going to get physical...) And yes, I realize I hinted at Jyoukari, which is a little weird, but I felt bad for not having Jyou in this fic so far and I wanted someone to comfort Kari and help her get out there to the party and apologize. 

Scarecrow!Yamato and Gir!Ken had been in my head for so long it's not even funny. Olive!Takeru is a new addition, and I happen to think it's funny as hell. As for Koushirou's costume...I wrote that without thinking, stared at what I wrote, and shrugged and figured I'd keep it like that. I don't know, it was weird.

The Alka Seltzer part is true. If you put some in a bird, it will explode, because it can't burp or fart or something like that. And no I don't know if I spelled Alka Seltzer right, I just guessed. It doesn't matter, though. You know what I'm talking about, right? Me and my friends were talking about this and how gross it would be if a bird exploded above your head and I thought, 'Hey, why don't I put it in my fic just for fun?' 

One last thing. The Takeru-olive-costume came from two different things: A book I own called Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, in which the main character goes to a costume party dressed up as a stuffed olive, and two: I just wanted an excuse to give Takeru bright red hair. 


	15. Letting Yourself Cry

A/N: I finished the Koushirou-goes-after-Ken part and decided to post it alone, since posting the rest along with it might take away the specialness of this scene. This is for all you people that wanted Kouken sweetness. It isn't quite completely Kouken yet, but it's still fluffy and cute. There's a bit of angst, but it's not too bad. Well, not really. Anyways, go ahead and read.

Letting Yourself Cry

The moon was shining in the sky, the trees were swaying in the gentle breeze, and the air was cool and crisp. Ken felt like destroying all the beauty it created. He glared up at the white, smiling circle imprinted in the black velvet and slowly lifted a hand, extending only his middle finger, smiling slightly to himself, though not happily. 

  
"Oh, come on, Ken. What did the moon ever do to you?"

Ken brought his hand back down and turned to look at Koushirou, eyes slightly wide. 

"There's no reason to go flipping it off," Koushirou added as he walked to Ken's side.

Ken turned and looked at the moon again, as if expecting its perpetual smile to turn upside down any second. He scowled. 

"Why doesn't the moon ever frown? Why doesn't it ever cry?"

"Because it doesn't have emotions," Koushirou answered, as if it were a perfectly normal question.

"I have emotions, or at least I think I do, and I can't cry. Why is that?"

"You will cry when you let yourself cry, Ken. It is a hard task to make oneself cry on command."

"I can't let myself cry, yet sometimes I want to. Does that make sense?"

"You're the prodigy, you figure it out." 

Ken turned to look at Koushirou. Koushirou was smiling at him. 

"Do you think this is all funny?"  


"Of course. It's funny, you're funny, the world is funny, Ken. In fact, the world is so funny it makes me want to laugh and cry and scream and smile all at the same time."

"Everything makes me feel like that now," Ken said, tracing his finger in the air, though not in any particular shape or form. 

"Well then, at least you're human."

Ken dropped his arm to his side and looked at Koushirou oddly. "Why did you follow me out here?"

Koushirou merely smiled again and walked out into the garden in Taichi's backyard. Ken watched him disappear behind a cluster of bushes and trees and waited a few seconds before he couldn't stand it anymore and just had to follow Koushirou.

Koushirou had sat down on a swing in the middle of the trees and flowers and was gently rocking back and forth, looking over the sky. Ken stared at him and shifted his weight to one foot. 

"Why did you, Koushirou?" he asked again.

Koushirou sighed loudly in reply and flopped down to lay on the swing. He didn't appear to have heard Ken at all. Ken grumbled to himself in annoyance and marched over to the swing.

"Move."

Koushirou sat up and watched as Ken sat beside him, rigid and looking annoyed. Koushirou grinned and swung his arm over the back of the swing, looking around.

"Beautiful garden, isn't it?"  


Ken mumbled something and leant his head against the chain holding the swing up. Koushirou translated the mumble into "I guess" and smiled, leaning over and plucking a flower from a bush. He held it up and inspected it.

"Hmm," he said.

"What does 'hmm' mean?"

"It doesn't have to mean anything. It can mean many things. That's why people use it to fill up empty space."

"You don't like silence?"

"Oh, I enjoy it very much, but this night is too beautiful to be silent in."

Ken turned to look at him, face scrunched up. "What?"

Koushirou looked over at him, smiled, and laughed, leaning his head back.

"Ken, why do you shy away from the world?"

Ken leant his head down and let his hair fall over his face, shielding him from Koushirou's view. 

"Yes, just like that," Koushirou added. Ken glanced up through his hair to send a glare his way. Koushirou just kept smiling.

"Why do you put up with me?" Ken asked.

"Answer my question first."

Ken sighed and lifted his head. "I hide from the world...because I don't want to deal with it. I want to just sit down somewhere and watch the world pass me by, because participating in it guarantees me hurt and confusion, which is what I've been feeling the past few weeks, nonstop."

"If you don't participate in it, you won't feel happiness and love and victory, either."

"I answered your question, now answer mine," Ken said a bit sharply.

Koushirou leant back, taking a deep breath and blowing it upwards towards his bangs, making them flutter on his forehead. It fell back down, messed up, and Koushirou grinned at him. Ken was now giving him a very strange look, but he shrugged it off and laughed.

"I put up with you because I want to know what makes you the way you are," Koushirou finally said. "I want to know why you're sad, what makes you happy, what makes you get up every morning and get out of bed, what songs make your heart pump happiness, what adjectives you use to define yourself, and what your soul looks like behind your heavily guarded eyes."

"You should be a poet," Ken told him after he thought carefully about everything Koushirou had said.

"Who said I'm not?" Koushirou answered, smiling. "My turn to ask you a question."

"Who said we're taking turns?"

"Just let me ask, okay?"

Ken sighed and leant into the side of the swing, turned towards Koushirou, figuring he couldn't get out of this as easily as he usually slipped out of things. "Ask away."

Koushirou thought a while. "What color do you think your soul is and why?"

"What?" Ken asked, face scrunched up again in an uncomprehending look.

"What color do you think your soul is? Why?" Koushirou asked slowly.

"My soul isn't any color. It's just...there."

"So you think your soul is clear?""  


"I didn't say that."

"Well, if it isn't clear, then what?"

Ken sighed. He thought awhile. "I guess my soul would be kind of gray right now."

"Why?"

"Because it isn't feeling bad and it isn't feeling good. It's in an in-between mood. Like I said...it's just there."

Koushirou nodded and waited for Ken to ask a question. 

Ken hung his head awhile and played with his shoe laces. Koushirou waited patiently, knowing that Ken knew perfectly well he was waiting. Ken waited a while longer to try Koushirou's patience with him, knowing that others would probably give up after a while. Soon, though, Ken gave up instead.

"Okay, okay, um...let me think of one."

"What have you been doing all this time, then?" Koushirou asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"I got one," Ken said, ignoring him. He looked up at him, looking unsure. 

Koushirou smiled reassuringly. "Go ahead. Ask me."

Ken looked down again and began playing with his laces again. 

"Why do you like me?"

Koushirou's grin faded slightly and then slowly regained its power. 

"Boy, that's a hard question." He slumped down in his seat and truly looked perplexed. "Why do I like you? Well...I guess I just do. You can't ask someone a question like that. It's like asking, why is vanilla your favorite ice cream flavor? Or, why are you wearing a red shirt today? It just happens."

Ken nodded slowly, hanging his head even more so his face wasn't visible at all. Koushirou looked at him and his smile faded slightly. He uncurled his fist and looked down at the crushed flower. Glancing up, he reached over and placed the flower on Ken's knee. Ken lifted his head slightly to stare at the crushed flower, no longer beautiful, but still smelling sweet. His shoulders shook.

"You just have to let yourself," Koushirou reminded him gently.

Ken looked away, biting his lip, not willing to give in to this boy so easily. He didn't like it when people tried to get inside of his head, but instead, Koushirou had taken a different route and tried to get inside his heart. It scared him even more.

A hot trail of wetness burned his skin and he sighed, feeling a sort of release. He shut his eyes, forcing more tears out, and Koushirou leant towards him. Ken obediently leant in also and rested his head on Koushirou's shoulder. Koushirou lifted his hand to rub the back of Ken's neck, and then slowly run his fingers through his hair, staring up at the moon, which had never once ceased to smile down at them.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: How prettyful! Crying is a good form of catharsis. Sorry if it all seemed a bit cliche. (Where are those accent thingies?) I was just trying to make it romantic without having them actually kiss or anything yet. Ken's still a bit weird about Koushirou liking him and all, but he's getting over it. Please, please review! Even if you usually don't or you feel too lazy to do it, just please review this. I'm only getting, like, three reviews per chapter, and I know a lot more of you read this. Anyways, I'll try and get the Kari-reconciling-with-the-others chapter up soon. 'Til then, see ya.


	16. Sweet Reconciliation

A/N: I had to get this chapter up already. I'd waited too long. I felt guilty. Blargh. So, here's the conclusion to the Halloween party. I hope you all like it, and that it isn't too rushed. I've had a stupid writer's block, and I've been in bed with the flu. I managed to get this out, though. Are you proud of me? Tell me what you like or don't like. I don't know anymore.

Sweet Reconciliation

To say that she was frightened was a bit of an understatement. She knew everything she had done and she hated every second of doing it, but she'd felt the need to protect herself from harm. She figured that she should have just apologized and got it over with, but she'd instead continued lying, burying herself deeper and deeper into the problem. Tonight, she was going to dig herself out, with a little help from an old friend, but she still dreaded being rejected by the people she used to - and still did - love so much.

Jyou squeezed her hand in reassurance, feeling how tense she was, and she managed a small smile. They finally reached the kitchen and Jyou lead her in. Sora, Mimi, and Iori were busy talking about this and that. Iori was the one that looked up and saw her. He smiled at her and waved.

"Hey, Kari, I haven't seen you in such a long time. Have you been sick?"

Sora and Mimi froze and slowly looked up at the doorway, where Jyou and Kari stood, holding hands, Jyou looking determined and Kari looking uncertain.

They hadn't told Iori about what had happened, not wanting to destroy any innocence, since he didn't know about Takeru and Daisuke, and he hardly had a hint at how close Taichi and Yamato had gotten. They were going to wait a year or two before telling him all about it, even though they knew he was mature enough to understand it. Iori was mature enough to understand about gay people, but hearing that his close friends were gay was a whole different story.

Kari slowly took steps into the kitchen and walked right past Sora and Mimi, standing in front of Iori and smiling. She leant down and hugged him tightly.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Iori-kun?"

Iori hugged her back happily. Out of all the group, Miyako, Kari and Sora were the nicest and most kind-hearted towards the youngest member of the group. He'd dearly missed Miyako and she, since he felt for her as a little brother would a big sister.

"Is Miya-chan here?"

"No, not right now," Kari answered him a bit sadly. She knew he'd missed the purple-haired girl most of all. 

She stood up straight and turned to look at Sora and Mimi. Sora had her arms crossed and a big I-knew-you'd-come-back-soon smile on her face. Mimi was smiling gently, probably because Sora had constantly kept telling her how she thought Kari and Miyako were hiding something and weren't really angry with them. Kari went to them and the three had a little group hug. Sora rubbed Kari's back comfortingly, because the younger girl looked as if she were going to start crying. 

"I wish Miya-chan were here to see this," Kari said softly.

"Mmm," Sora mumbled back, knowing that Kari didn't really need an answer to that.

"Why don't you call her?" Mimi asked when they had stopped hugging.

Kari bit her lip and rested back against the counter. "I sort of want to apologize to everyone and make sure everything's okay again before I bring her over."

Mimi smiled. Kari was always looking out for Miyako, and if she wasn't completely sure everyone was going to forgive them, she wouldn't let Miyako come over, in case she might be hurt.

"Well, I think you should pay your brother and his boyfriend a visit next. They're sort of the ones you really need to apologize to, apart from Takeru."

Kari turned to stare at Sora. She didn't know Sora knew the whole story, too. She guessed that Taichi had called her right after he'd found out what she did to Takeru. She sighed and nodded reluctantly. 

"Yeah, I'll go find him."

Jyou moved from his place in the doorway, where he'd happily watched the entire thing. "Do you want me to go with you?"

Kari turned and smiled genuinely at him. "No, I think I need to do this on my own. Thanks anyways, Jyou. You have no idea how much you've done for me tonight."

"Hey, that's what friends are for," Jyou replied, and at the mention of the word 'friends', Kari broke into the biggest smile he'd seen on her face ever since before the entire mess had started.

~ ~ ~ ~

Daisuke and Takeru fought over the mini-Snickers bar, eyes flashing warnings. It was the last one. Who would triumph and be able to taste the sweet chocolate melting in their mouth? Daisuke finally wrestled it away and took off running to the couch. Takeru followed in hot pursuit, and by the time Daisuke had reached the couch, Daisuke had fought the wrapper off. 

Daisuke turned around and held a hand up to stop Takeru from ramming him into the couch, and he slowly broke the Snickers bar into two pieces. One piece ended up being a bit bigger than the other piece. Daisuke looked from one to the other, trying to decide whether to give the bigger piece up to Takeru, or if maybe Takeru wouldn't mind letting him have the bigger one. Takeru looked at him, tapping his foot. 

Daisuke ended up closing his eyes and switching the pieces from one hand to the other, then holding one out to Takeru. He opened his eyes and saw that he was holding out the smaller piece. Takeru took it and looked at it, looking a bit disappointed.

Daisuke grumbled to himself before snatching the little piece back and shoving the big piece at Takeru.

"Fine, you can have it."

Takeru grinned and took the offer, biting into it and closing his eyes as he savored the taste of chocolate. 

"Mmm, yummy."

"Don't rub it in." Daisuke pouted at his small piece and shoved it all into his mouth. Takeru smiled and broke off a little piece from his piece and handed it to Daisuke. 

Daisuke smiled. "No, you can keep it."

"Really?"

Takeru looked surprised. Daisuke must really like him, if he was letting Takeru have all of the big piece of the Snickers bar, especially since Snickers was Daisuke's personal favorite. 

Takeru leant over and hugged Daisuke tightly, squealing, "You are _so_ sweet, Dai-chan!"

Daisuke blushed and mumbled something like, "Thanks, I guess."

Ken and Koushirou wandered in, hands entwined. They sat down on the other couch and Ken sighed and slumped down. Koushirou looked over at him and grinned at him, and Ken involuntarily smiled back. He automatically made himself stop smiling and tried to look depressed again, though it was hard with Koushirou holding his hand and leaning his head on Ken's shoulder, making him feel those stupid tingly things again. 

Daisuke and Takeru blinked at the pair and then looked at each other, smiling. Daisuke caught Koushirou's eye and winked at him, and Koushirou blushed almost as red as his hair. 

Then, Koushirou remembered he was supposed to be mad at Daisuke and glared at him.

"Never, _ever_ touch my machinery again. Do you understand me, Daisuke?"

Daisuke grinned. "Yes, I understand you."

'But just because I understand doesn't mean I'll listen to you,' Daisuke thought, and hid his smirk with his hand.

Takeru saw it and swatted at his arm, then grabbed his hand and stood up, pulling his boyfriend up with him.

"Let's go into the kitchen. I'm hungry again."

Daisuke sighed. "Will nothing satisfy your hunger?"

"Hey, you're even more of a pig than me. You've had four helpings, and I've only had three."

Daisuke smiled. "Only four? Well, I guess I could use a fifth right about now."

Takeru sighed and lead him into the kitchen, shaking his head.

Koushirou chuckled at the younger pair and ruffled Ken's hair. Ken grumbled and let his chin sink to touch his chest, trying to hide any visible evidence of the heat he felt on his cheeks. Damn Koushirou for making him feel this way. The most annoying part was he was sort of enjoying it all. He liked Koushirou's company. 

Suddenly Kari plopped down on the other couch. "Hey, have you guys seen Tai or Yamato?"  


They stared at her for awhile, eyes slightly wide. She grinned.

"What? Do I have something on my face?"  


Koushirou suddenly smiled and held his arms out. "Welcome back, Kari!"

Kari stood and went over to hug Koushirou tightly. He hugged back as best as he could in their position, with her standing and him sitting.

Ken grumbled to himself again, not sure if he was feeling anger towards her now because she was hugging Koushirou so closely or because she had hurt Takeru so much before. He guessed it was both.

She turned and gave him a small smile.

"Ken? Could you ever forgive me?"

Ken sighed. "I suppose I could...sometime. Right now, I'm still a bit..." He trailed off and Kari sighed, nodding.

"Well, as long as I know you will, eventually. I just want you to know I'm sorry for anything and everything, and I really want to be friends again, Ken."

Ken noticed the sad yet hopeful look in her eyes and knew she was telling the truth. He reluctantly held his arms out. "Okay, okay, just quit giving me that look."

She smiled brightly and hugged him the way she had Koushirou, and Ken let go sooner than Koushirou had let her go. Kari nodded in understandment, smiled and waved at them both, and went off to another room in search of her brother.

Koushirou sighed in relief. "Well, I'm glad that's over. Aren't you?"

Ken glanced up at him. "Hmm?"

Koushirou smiled and ruffled his hair again. "Never mind, Kenny."

Ken sighed loudly at his messed-up hair, which now hung in his face, but Koushirou saw the smile through that dark curtain, and knew it was genuine. 

~ ~ ~ ~

Kari slowly knocked at the door to her brother's room, not wanting to interrupt him and Yamato, whatever they might be doing. She waited, head down, until someone opened the door. She slowly looked up at her brother's face.

Taichi stared down at her, looking surprised. When was the last time his sister had come to his room to seek him out for anything?

"Does Mom want something?"

"No...I just wanted to talk to you about something. I want to talk to you both," she added, as she saw Yamato getting up to leave. Yamato sat back down, looking wary.

Taichi slowly moved back to let her in, and then closed the door once she'd gotten inside the room.

They sat on Taichi's bed, Taichi and Yamato sitting across from Kari. Kari took a deep breath and then looked up at them. 

"I came to apologize for everything I've done. I'm talking about actions, words...anything."

Taichi looked even more surprised and Yamato raised an eyebrow.

"I truly think you guys make a great couple...and I don't have anything against gay or bisexual people, okay? Nothing at all. You're still my brother and my brother's boyfriend to me."

"So...all of that angry-at-us stuff was all a load of bull?" Yamato asked.

"Yeah," Kari said slowly, still bowing her head.

"Why?" Taichi asked simply.

"Because I couldn't accept the fact that Takeru was actually gay, and therefore, I had absolutely no chance with him."

"You should have accepted it anyways, and not forgotten you were also his friend," Taichi said a bit sternly.

"I know, I know. I should have. I made a stupid mistake, okay? I've paid for it. I'm sorry. Are we okay again?"

Kari looked up expectantly. Yamato was laughing.

"She sounds like you after we've had a fight, Taichi."

"Shut up," Taichi said lovingly, and gathered the both of them into a hug.

"Of course we're okay again, little sis," Taichi finished, smirking.

Kari pulled on his arm. "Loosen...grip...please."

And with that, brother and sister were reunited, and even though all was not perfect, at least they had each other again.

~ ~ ~ ~

"...so that's the whole story. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, my bad."

Takeru blinked at Kari. She gave him a lopsided grin and patted his cheek. 

"So, are we cool?"

"Taichi is _so_ influencing you," Daisuke commented. He still hadn't stopped squeezing Kari. He'd hugged her since she walked in with that sad look on her face.

"Yeah, I can forgive you," Takeru finally said, uncrossing his arms slowly. They were the first words he'd spoken to her that night.

Kari grinned and clapped her hands, squealing slightly. She reached forward and hugged him, and he hugged back, so that anyone that walked in then would see a Kari sandwich.

"You know, I like your hair red like that, Takeru. What were you dressed as before, anyways?"

"You don't want to know..."

They stopped hugging, and Daisuke finally let her go. She giggled and put her arms around them both. 

"So, I take it you guys are finally an item?"

They both blushed and she giggled even more.

"Congratulations, whoever asked whoever out!"

"Thank you," they both said simultaneously.

"Jinx!" they screeched, pointing at each other and holding up crossed fingers, otherwise known as "kings".

"You owe me a soda!"

"No way, man, _you_ owe _me_ a soda!"

"I said Jinx first!"

Kari smiled to herself, sighing. It was good to be back.

~ ~ ~ ~  


"Well, it was a great party, everyone, and I hate to say this, but..._get the hell outta my house_!"

Taichi chased them all out the door and the gang all walked to their cars or rides, laughing.

Taichi yelled a farewell and waved, gave Yamato a goodbye kiss, and closed the door to his house. He ushered Kari to her room with orders to get right to sleep.

Takeru had some difficulty cramming his olive costume into Yamato's car, but the combined efforts of the brothers soon got it in. 

Koushirou gave Ken a ride home, leant over and kissed his cheek as a parting gift, and smiled when he saw Ken was blushing madly when he stepped into the outside light of his house.

Kari smiled as she drifted off to sleep, feeling her soul grow lighter just knowing that the days ahead would be so much easier, knowing she had ten special people back in her life. 

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: To continue or not to continue, that is the question. **Sigh** Please, please, please review.


	17. Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye

The weather was getting colder. Thanksgiving was just around the corner, and they were all going to spend it with their families. They wouldn't be having a party. However, they were going to have two days off from school, so they would be able to do something together for those days if they wanted to. Taichi suggested a road trip, and Jyou warned them about the last road trip they'd attempted happening again, but they said they'd talk about it later. 

Daisuke and Takeru were not having any problems in their relationship and were enjoying it as much as they could, hanging out all the time and talking about simple things and deep things. Ken had begun to feel ignored by them, and after two Playstation Wars nights were broken for dates, he had started to feel very left out. There was a growing void in his life that his two best friends had once filled, one that even Koushirou couldn't fill, even though Ken was finding himself hanging around Koushirou constantly. 

Ken decided to confront Daisuke and Takeru about being left out so much, and they finally made it a date to talk to each other before school. Ken told them about the way he'd been feeling, and about how he felt left out, and they looked truly sorry and arranged for an emergency Playstation War sleepover the next weekend, where they would try their best to put their relationship to the side and just hang out as three best friends again. 

Taichi and Yamato had another fight and Taichi was glued to Sora's side for a few days, while Yamato practiced with his band before and after school until he finally had to go home since it got so late. Soon, Taichi and Yamato were shoved at each other by a very frustrated Sora and Mimi, and they worked it out. The next day they were inseparable again, and Sora and Mimi kept their eyes on the boys to make sure there were no further problems. 

The girls decided to have a Girl's Night Out that weekend, since Kari and Miyako hadn't tagged along on one for so long, and Sora and Mimi missed them on the last few. 

Koushirou finally got it through Ken's head that he wasn't intending to leave him for no good reason and Ken began to trust him and talk to him about his feelings and his past, and Koushirou realized that Ken was slowly falling for him, too. Koushirou finally just threw up his hands and kissed Ken, and he was only half-surprised when Ken pulled back and yelled at him for sneaking up on him like that, only to pull him forward and kiss him back a few seconds later. 

Takeru and Kari slowly but surely began building their friendship up again, picking up the pieces and mending the broken shards until they could trust each other again, just like the old days. Ken finally started actually listening to Kari's apologies, and he finally accepted her and counted her as a friend once again. 

One afternoon, Daisuke decided to visit Jerry again. He met him outside on Jerry's bench and sat down with him. 

"Hey, haven't talked to you in a while," Jerry greeted him as he sat down.

Daisuke grinned back. "I know."

"So, how's school, Takeru, your friends, and your life? Any improvements?"

"School's the same, Takeru's great, my friends are all happy again, and my life is getting a little better by the day. Take and I are realizing now that we aren't including Ken in activities as much anymore, and I feel so bad about that...I mean, we used to be inseparable, you know? We used to be as close as Taichi and Yamato were, and they are attached at the hip. Then we just started drifting apart, after...you know...and now I feel crappy for treating Ken like he wasn't one of us anymore. I'm going to try to include him on stuff again, and we're going to have another Playstation War this weekend, so I'm looking forward to that."

"That's good. Is he still sad and sleepy?"  


"He isn't as sleepy anymore, and he's still very sad, but he isn't that depressed anymore, you know? He actually smiles sometimes now, especially around Koushirou, since Koushirou is constantly trying to make him smile because he says Ken's smiles are precious or something like that..."

"Do you think he loves him?"  


"I think he might. His feelings for Ken are huge, you know? I know that much. As for love...I can't tell."

"Does Takeru know much about you?"

Daisuke thought for awhile, then smiled. "Not much, no, but he's finding out more every day."

"But there's still a lot he doesn't know."

"Of course. There are some things I can't trust even him with knowing. Remember I told you that there is stuff I promised myself I'd only tell the person I fall in love with? That stuff I can't tell him."

"Because you don't love him."

"Well...no."

"Are you ever afraid he might love you?"

Daisuke looked down at the ground and moved his feet around. "Yes."

"Do you get scared that he might like you a lot more than you like him?"

"Yes."

"And that you might not be able to return those feelings?"

"Yes."

Jerry smiled. "I got scared that same way when I first met my wife. We began going out as boyfriend and girlfriend, and one night she told me she might love me, and I got scared shitless. I didn't think I loved her. I thought about it for so long that I hardly slept at all, and I finally came to the conclusion that...I didn't. It took me a few years to realize I did."

"And the moral of the story is...?"  


"Nothing. Just that you never know."

"You're right, I don't. I don't know if I'll fall in love with Takeru or if I never will. I don't know if I'll break up with him next week, next month, or years from now."

"You never know. I love that about life, it keeps you guessing until the very end."

Jerry smiled to himself. Daisuke looked a bit uncomfortable.

They stared out into the trees and the alleys and the people passing by for a while, and then Jerry said, "Daisuke?"

"What?"

"You don't have to know right now. You're still just a kid."

Daisuke realized he was right. He was just a kid. He didn't have to know any of those things, didn't have to worry about them, because he wasn't supposed to know just yet. Why worry now?

"Thanks, Jerry."

"No problem."

They smiled at each other for a while, and then Daisuke furrowed his eyebrow. 

"Did you feel that?"

Daisuke wiped the wetness from his hand and stared at it. Was it raining?

No. No, it wasn't raining. But it couldn't be. Not in twenty years. It hadn't snowed in twenty years. Could it...

Daisuke looked up at the sky. Yes, it was. He stood up, gasping, pulling his hood back from his head to reveal a shock of red spiky hair. Snowflakes got lost in his mop of hair and inside of his mouth. He began laughing happily. 

It was snowing again for the first time in twenty years. 

Daisuke twirled around and smiled up at the sky, and then he turned and smiled at Jerry. Jerry was smiling back at him, a tired, old-man kind of smile that old people give young people because they know they have something they lost a long time ago. Daisuke suddenly realized Jerry would be leaving home that day.

"You know what this means, right?" Jerry asked him gently.

Daisuke nodded, and then started shaking his head and muttering, "No" over and over. Jerry stood and Daisuke rushed to him and hugged him, as if begging him to sit back down.

"You can't leave right now. You just can't...I need you to be there. I need something to stay in place in my life, and you're the one that I can always count on being there for me."

Daisuke had always counted on Jerry being there, waiting on his park bench, smiling at the sky like he knew the snow was on it's way, that it was just waiting for the perfect moment to fall and surprise him and the rest of the world. 

"You can't go, you can't..."  


"Daisuke, don't."

Jerry hugged the young boy and Daisuke buried his head in his shoulder, sniffling. Jerry didn't tell him to be a man and hold it in. He didn't tell him it was okay to cry. He just held him until he stopped shivering, and then he let him go.

"Daisuke, I'm going to go home now. She's waiting for me."

Daisuke saw the twinkle in Jerry's eye, and he wondered if maybe Jerry truly did think his wife was still alive and waiting for him to come back now that it was snowing again, which meant she wasn't angry with him anymore.

"Am I ever going to see you again?"

"Maybe. But just in case...let's say goodbye this time."

Daisuke hated the word goodbye in that moment. He hated it with all his life. He didn't want to say goodbye to this man, to this friend of his. 

"Goodbye, Daisuke." Jerry tipped his hat to him. The hat had a hole in the side of the wool, but Jerry always wore it anyways. Daisuke gave him a longing look, but he slowly lifted his hand and waved.

"Goodbye, Jerry."

Jerry began walking down the sidewalk towards his house. Daisuke stayed staring in the opposite direction, not wanting to watch Jerry walk away from him, because he felt that if he knew where Jerry lived, he would go search him out, and he got the feeling that Jerry would not want to see him after he went home to find his house empty and his wife long gone. 

When Daisuke could not hear the man's footsteps anymore, he began walking off in the direction his was facing, not smiling anymore but knowing it was for the best. The snow kept falling, gently brushing his skin with tears, and Daisuke let it fall on him, wanting its cold companionship to see him home. 

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Bye, Jerry! I'll miss you...bleh. I finally finished this chapter. Yay. That's a relief...I started it and restarted it about seven times, but I finally got it to where I at least think it's decent enough to upload. Blargh. Since so many of you wanted more, here you go. Enjoy. And I'm sorry because I know it's late, but I've been having problems with being sick and too much homework. So tell me what you think of the suggested road trip, and if I should do the family Thanksgiving, the emergency Playstation Wars sleepover, and the Girl's Night Out.


End file.
